Portraitist, first photographer of the Grand Ducal court, publisher of illustrated albums and inventor who worked to improve artificial lighting techniques in photographic studios, Charles Bernhœft is the most important Luxembourg photographer of the late 19th century and of the early 20th century. Following the major retrospective that the National Museum of History and Art dedicated to him in 2006, the exhibition at the M3E focuses more particularly on the role played by his photographs in the construction of a national identity in Luxembourg.
The exhibition is structured around two main themes linked to this quest for identity: on the one hand, portraits of sovereigns and the Grand Ducal family, on the other, views of picturesque sites in the Grand Duchy with their historical remains and the urban landscape of the capital remodeled after the dismantling of the fortress. The images are presented in different forms: classically developed proof prints intended for sale, collotypes grouped in thematic albums, an illustrated weekly magazine and photographs reproduced on postcards distributed on a large scale.
Charles Bernhœft's photographs thus contribute to profoundly changing the perception that citizens have of their country and will become, over time, the visual supports of the identity awareness of a national community, before being transformed into souvenir images anchored in the collective memory and into historical documents for current generations.
