Miguel ALÉO (1824-c. 1900). The Reserve and the Château de l - Lot 54

Miguel ALÉO (1824-c. 1900). The Reserve and the Château de l'Anglais, 1864. Albumin print mounted on card, 25 x 37 cm. Signed lower right in red ink and dated 1864, caption in pencil. Dry photographer's stamp in the center margin. Born in Havana, Miguel Aléo became a photographer in Nice around 1855. He alternated between Paris, his home in Meudon (Bellevue) and trips to the Riviera. He met Alphonse Davanne, a resident of Menton, who introduced him to the Société française de photographie and made him secretary of its newsletter. Already known for the quality of his landscapes, which won him a medal at the London Universal Exhibition in 1862, Aléo produced a remarkable photographic report on Corsica in 1865, for the inauguration of the monument erected to the glory of Napoleon I and his brothers in Ajaccio. Some prints of Aléo's views of Corsica, sold by Rocca-Tartarini, bear Alphonse Davanne's dry stamp on their mounts, suggesting a collaboration between these two photographers. Miguel Aléo took part in SFP exhibitions between 1859 and 1870, as well as in the 1862 London World's Fair and the 1867 Paris World's Fair.