Hyppolite Victor Valentin Sebron (French, 1801-1879, active New Orleans, 1850-54), "Bateaux … Vapeur Geants (Study for Giant Steamboats on the Sugar Levee at New Orleans)", oil on canvas, unsigned, 16in. x 19.5in. E5000-7000 Provenance: A well-known Vieux Carre Collector to an esteemed Mobile, Alabama collection Note: In the 1830s, Hyppolite Victor Valentin Sebron toured American cities, including New Orleans, exhibiting the dioramas he created in collaboration with his teacher and the inventor of photography, Louis- Jacques-Mande Daguerre. Returning from a trip to the American West, Sebron made an extended stay in New Orleans during the 1851-52 winter season At this time, Sebron painted his monumental "Bateaux a Vapeur Geants (Giant Steamboats on the Sugar Levee at New Orleans)". Representing the crucial aspects of the economy of America's foremost port, Sebron depicted a bustling day along the docks of the city. Sebron exhibited the painting in New Orleans during May of 1852 and in the 1855 Paris Exposition. Daniel H. Holmes, founder of the Canal Street emporium that bore his name, recognized its importance and purchased the painting in 1868. Holmes loaned the painting for display at the 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans, and in 1892 donated the painting to Tulane University, where it hung in the President's house for many years. Using traditional academic techniques, Sebron apparently painted two smaller paintings in addition to the final exposition painting. One of the studies, an oil on canvas signed and dated 1850, is exhibited at The Historic New Orleans Collection, a gift of their founder General Kemper Williams. The oil on canvas painting offered in this sale is larger and more complete than the Williams example. Ref: Jessie Poesch, The Art of the Old South, Alfred Knopf, New York, 1983; Jessie Poesch, Paintings in the South: 1564-1980, Virginia Museum, Richmond, 1983; John Mahe and Rosanne McCaffrey, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918, The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1987.