The “Fons Fotogràfic Virenque-Simó” photographic travelling exhibition, from the Societat Arqueològica Lul.liana, can be visited at the Town Hall´s multi-purpose room, until 13th July.
The “Fons Fotogràfic Virenque-Simó” photographic travelling exhibition, from the Societat Arqueològica Lul.liana, can be visited at the Town Hall´s multi-purpose room, until 13th July. A selection of fifty photographs of the society and the landscape of Majorca from the end of the 19th century.
It was in the middle of the 50´s of the 19th century when the French painter and photographer Jules Virenque arrived to a Majorca which was culturally active and opened his photographic studio in Palma. Together with his wife, Francisca Simó, he photographed a great part of the society from the end of the 19th century, as well as the landscape, the architecture and the religious art of Majorca. After Virenque´s death, it was her who continued with the business, becoming the first woman photographer on the Island. Some of the Virenque-Simó´s family members, installed in our municipality and nowadays we can find his descendants in Calvià.
All these historical pieces, a collection of 2.606 photos and in its majority portraits, were acquired by the Societat Arqueològica Lul•liana in the middle of the 40´s, and they were cleaned, restored, digitalized and catalogued by Rosa de Aguilar, Josep Sabater and Dolors Fortesa-Rei with the aim of spreading them and make them known.
Children, soldiers, complete families, ecclesiastical authorities, the port of Sóller, Sa Foradada, the Sant Francesc´s cloister, as well as monuments or jewellery of the time were displayed for these photographers.