Publishers and the business with Voyages pittoresques

Painting pictures, etching etchings, coloring them - that was part of the artists' job. But who were the people who set large book projects in motion, financed them and sold them throughout Europe? We know them today as "publishers" and know that they played an important role in the production and distribution of images of Switzerland - especially for illustrated travel guides, the Voyages pittoresques . As those responsible for their entire production, they ensured the purchase of the paper, appointed the printer and bookbinder and urged the artists to supply them with the desired views and printing plates. As if that were not enough, they also negotiated with authors for the travel descriptions to be printed and took care of the sale of the works. Get to know important Swiss publishers and find out how their diverse business worked!

The Voyages pittoresques , for which the publishers were responsible, became increasingly popular around 1800 as a supplement to the colored single sheets by the Swiss minor masters. For these illustrated books, various views were combined to create vivid travel routes through Switzerland and provided with informative descriptions. Voyages pittoresques are thus a genre of early travel literature, similar to the travel guides we still know today. The use of Voyages pittoresques varied depending on the format: small and light books were used while traveling, while large and particularly valuable books were used to prepare for upcoming trips or to remember past ones - all from the comfort of home or a library.

The production of a Voyages pittoresque was a collaborative effort in which different people with different skills were involved. The main task of publishers was therefore to coordinate their employees and their processes. For this reason, it was also important that they had good contacts in the art and academic scene as well as the book market. This enabled them to find suitable artists, printers, authors and dealers for their projects. In many cases, the title page and imprint of a Voyage pittoresque can be used to find out who was involved in a project and in what role.

As early as 1500, the Rhine city of Basel was a center for book printing and publishing, where books by important authors, illustrated by famous artists, were produced and sold. The publishing industry benefited from its proximity to the university, founded in 1460, and its demand for books.

By 1800, Basel was not only a suitable starting point for the sciences, but also for travelers to Switzerland. The engraver and publisher Christian von Mechel (1737-1817), who ran a well-known art dealership with a studio in Basel, took advantage of this favorable location. With the help of his employees, he published numerous views of Switzerland under his own name. However, his range also included works by the most famous Kleinmeister, for example the bound 12 Landschäftlein by Johann Ludwig Aberli (1723-1786). Peter Birmann (1758-1844), the illustrator and publisher of the Voyage pittoresque de Basle à Bienne par les Vallons de Mottiers-Grandval (1802), was also active in Basel. His sons Samuel and Wilhelm Birmann also joined his successful publishing business and art dealership from 1817.

One of the most important Swiss publishing houses that produced and distributed Voyages pittoresques is Orell Füssli and Comp. The Zurich-based company is well-known to many: under changing company names, it was an important publishing institution during the Zurich Reformation, published important works of the Enlightenment in the 18th century and is still active today as one of the largest printing companies in Switzerland. The printing works belonged to Orell Füssli and Comp. from the very beginning: this meant that the company's own publishing works could be typographically and pictorially designed in-house. The company also offered the publishing works in its own sales store.

As a sales catalog from around 1820 shows, Orell Füssli and Comp. also had a good nose for successful works in the early 19th century: the company published the Voyages pittoresques aux Lacs de la Suisse by Johann Jakob Wetzel, but also sold numerous well-known works by other publishers.

A Voyage pittoresque was not always published by a large publishing house such as Orell Füssli and Comp. In many cases, artists took this into their own hands: self-publishing offered artists the advantage that they retained the rights to their works and could pocket all the profits from sales. At the same time, however, as self-publishers they also bore the costs of producing and distributing the works and therefore took a greater financial risk. If a work was self-published by the artist, this is sometimes noted on the title page with the designation "Chez l'auteur".

One of the first self-publishers of Swiss views was the Kleinmeister Johann Ludwig Aberli (1723-1786) from Winterthur. The trained painter set up a studio in Bern, where he and other employees produced landscape views. The studio used the technique of colored outline etching invented by Aberli: This process combined a printed etching with hand-applied coloring using watercolors. To prevent the process and his published works from being copied by others, Aberli applied to the city of Bern for a privilege for 10 years in 1766 and 1778 respectively. Privileges are documents that were used by publishers, printers and traders in the Old Swiss Confederacy to gain an advantage over the competition. With the increasing freedom of trade and commerce from the Helvetic Republic onwards, privileges became less important in the 19th century.

The production of extensive Voyages pittoresques often took several years. Projects of such long duration represented a major risk for publishers: Will there be enough customers who want to buy the work? Can the high costs be covered and the artists paid?

In order to reduce this financial risk, many publishers worked with the subscription model: in the run-up to publication, they advertised the planned work with a brochure that set the prices. They also asked people to subscribe to the work, i.e. to subscribe to it like a magazine. Subscribers then received regular deliveries of several views, which they paid for on receipt. In the end, these pictures could be bound together with the accompanying text to form the complete Voyage pittoresque. Publishers were thus able to estimate the required print run and benefit from regular income. Louis Bleuler (1792-1850), who ran a publishing house and studio in Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall, also used the subscription model for his monumental Voyage pittoresque aux bords du Rhin (1827–1842/1843).

Louis Bleuler was one of the best-known Swiss publishers of Voyages pittoresques, and his work on the Rhine was admired throughout Europe. It is often forgotten that his wife Antoinette Bleuler (1801-1873), née Trillié, ran the publishing business with him. Antoinette came from Paris, spoke perfect French and was a cosmopolitan woman. Alongside her husband, it was therefore mainly she who traveled through major European cities to win new customers for the Bleulers' Rheinwerk. When Louis Bleuler died in 1850, she continued to run the art publishing house independently until her death in 1873.

Antoinette Bleuler was by no means the only publisher of Swiss views: For example, Henriette-Louise de Meuron (1789-?), the wife of Gabriel Lory fils, was responsible for his publishing business and Franziska Möllinger (1817-1880), the first female photographer in Switzerland, published her own views in Solothurn.

Publishers collected the subscriptions for a Voyage pittoresque in a subscription book or subscription list. Customers entered their names and addresses there - this made it possible to keep track of orders. Publishers also received support from commission agents when recruiting subscribers and delivering the deliveries: These were usually book or art dealers who delivered the prints in the respective cities on behalf of the publishers and checked payment for the works. The Bleulers in particular built up a large network of commission agents due to their widely dispersed clientele:

Just make sure you also have a solid, active commission agent in Berlin so that everything is properly taken care of there in the future. Hopefully you will succeed in getting a few more subscribers so that everything will go together. [Translated by the author/DeepL]

Louis Bleuler to Antoinette Bleuler in Berlin, Schloss-Laufen, April 20, 1836; from: Robert Pfaff, Briefe des Landschaftsmalers Louis Bleuler in Auswahl, in: Schaffhauser Beiträge zur Geschichte, 1987, vol. 64, pp. 55-108. http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-841694

As soon as the production of a Voyage pittoresque was completed, it was offered through the book and art trade. Publishers had two options: Either they sold the works in their own stores or supplied various dealers with them. The Neuchâtel publisher Jean-Frédéric d'Ostervald (1773-1850) is known to have geared his publishing business towards an international clientele: he had his Voyage pittoresque aux glaciers de Chamouni (1815) sold by the two artists involved, Gabriel Lory père in Bern and Gabriel Lory fils in Neuchâtel, as he did not have his own art shop. At the same time, however, the work was also available from well-known book and art dealers in Switzerland and abroad.

To ensure that their works sold well, publishers actively advertised them. For Voyages pittoresques, which were financed using the subscription model, the subscription list was usually included with the first delivery: This made it clear to customers which important personalities had subscribed to the work. Publishers also benefited from being mentioned in travel guides: In the travel guide Anleitung auf die nützlichste und genussvollste Art in der Schweiz zu reisen (published several times from 1793) by Johann Gottfried Ebel, most travelers inquired about the best publishers and art shops for souvenir pictures.

The easiest way to advertise published works, however, was via daily newspapers and art magazines: The publishing house Orell Füssli and Comp. thus drew attention to the Voyages pittoresques by Johann Jakob Wetzel in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.