La fotografía como elemento de colección y como herramienta de un coleccionistaálbumes de memorias, souvenirs y reproducciones fotográficas en la documentación de arte de Calouste Gulbenkian

Resumo

Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955) was an armenian entrepreneur, a pioneer in the development of the oil business, and a philanthropist concerned about social issues, humanities and science. Another of his passions was art, a facet for which he is widely known due to his the large collection which is currently preserved in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. His life is marked by frequent trips and stances between Europe and the near- East for work or leasiure. Testimony of these are his library and collections which are full of books, images, photographies, and documents that record travels and artistic interests that led him to forge his heritage. Photography, which awakened his interest in collecting since his youth, is a substantial part and an essential tool to understand his modus operandi and the study of the history of art and masterpieces. Therefore, this research aims to establish the beginnings of Gulbenkian in photographic collecting as well as to determine what his interests were through the interpretation of his albums memories, souvenirs and reproductions collected among his art documentation. This photographic heritage will be addressed through two fundamentals: his collector´s item character, closely linked to the vision of souvenirs and travel memories; and its uses as an essential tool for the collector and connoisseur through art reproduction photography. For the part of the research that deals with photography as a collection object, two important albums were chosen to undergo a conservation process were analysed using three different methods: historical-artistic, technical and scientific. The preservation process has helped to determine the beginnings of Gulbenkian as a collector of photographs. Subsequently, the investigation in the art documentation found among its archives allowed to obtain an overview of it as whole, which leads to the discussion about art reproductions to establish the features and the uses he made of these photographic tools.