Maison de Nicéphore Niépce

About the museum

The house belongs to the Domaine du Gras in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, which the Niépce family occupied in the 19th century. It was there that Nicéphore Niépce set up his laboratory and workshop, and carried out most of his heliography experiments from the attic window. After the deaths of Claude and then Nicéphore Niépce, in 1833, the estate was sold to pay off the debts linked to Claude's machines and inventions, and was then divided into several lots.

In 1999 Pierre-Yves Mahé, founder of the Spéos photography school, rented the part of the house where Niépce's laboratory had been. He was the first photographer to return there since 1833. Together with the CNRS researcher Jean-Louis Marignier, he reconstructed the inventor's working conditions and carried out archaeological digs that recovered the setting of his experiments.

The house has been open to the public since 2002. It is entirely financed and run by the Spéos school, and the guided visits explain the invention of photography on the very spot where it took place.

Highlights

• House where Niépce made his first heliographs
• Former laboratory and workshop of Nicéphore Niépce
• Guided tours every hour in summer
• Archaeological digs at the site of his experiments

Permanent exhibition

• La maison du Gras et le laboratoire de Niépce – Guided tour of the house where Nicéphore Niépce worked on the invention of photography, including his former workshop-laboratory.

Founded

2002

Operated by

École de photographie Spéos

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