Frédéric Martens

The recorded working language is French. Places of work recorded in the authority are Paris. Work by Frédéric Martens is recorded in the collections of Nationalmuseum, National Gallery of Canada, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Philadelphia Museum of Art and J. Paul Getty Museum. Distinctions recorded are Knight of the Legion of Honour.

• Name — Frédéric Martens • Landscape — yes • Native Name — Friedrich von Martens • Other Names — Frédéric Vincent Martens • Birth Name — Friedrich von Martens • Born — 16 December 1806 • Birthplace — Venice, Italy • Died — 12 January 1885 • Place of death — Paris, France • Occupation — photographer, engraver • Honours — Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor

Martens was born on December 16, 1806 in Venice, in the Veneto region in northeastern Italy. His family was originally from the Kingdom of Württemberg and his father was a German diplomat. Martens studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, literally The Academy of Fine Arts of Venice.

Martens began his artistic career painting Italian landscapes. However, in the 1830s, he made a name for himself in western Europe as an engraver. He produced many steel engraving prints of Swiss artist's works such as Johann Ludwig Bleuler, Johann Rudolf Bühlmann, Johann Jakob Tanner and David Alois Schmid, or of his own drawings.

• Illustration — Mechanical drawing of the Megaskop-Kamera by Frédéric Martens. In the early 1840s Martens's interest for photography awakened and he started working with photographers like Noël Paymal Lerebours and Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière. From 1840 Martens worked in Lausanne with Samuel Heer and Marc Secretan on making daguerreotypes and on the process. In 1844 Martens was commissioned to take photographs on a French government expedition to the Alps. In 1845 Martens lived in Paris (17 rue Férou, in the 6th arrondissement). There he invented the Megaskop-Kamera, the first successful and technically effective panoramic camera. The first version of this camera featured a 1/4 swing lens and had a 150-degree arc. 4.7" × 15" curved daguerreotype plates were used on this model. A patent for this work is delivered on June 11, 1845 by the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce.

In 1851 Martens was renowned as one of the best tablotypists (according to Henry Fox Talbot). This year, Martens exhibited several albumen prints of architectural views at the Great Exhibition in London, for which he was awarded the Council Medal. Also on view was his panorama of Mont Blanc created with 14 calotypes. It was reshown at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris. On October 29, 1855, Martens was decorated with the National Order of the Legion of Honor (Knight).

Until his death in 1885, Martens practiced photography and produced daguerreotypes and albumen prints. His most famous works are his panoramas of the river Seine.

Frédéric Martens is recorded as photographer, printmaker, painter, sculptor and scientific illustrator.

Martens died on January 12, 1885 at age 78 in his second apartment in the 6th arrondissement of Paris (84 rue Bonaparte). Most of his archive was burnt in 1871 during the Paris Commune.

• Smithsonian National Museum of American History • Musée d'Orsay • Bibliothèque nationale de France • Swiss National Library