MINING PENCILS, SCULPTING GRAPHITE: THE SIBERIAN EXPEDITION OF J.-P. ALIBERT (1844–1857) AND THE EVOLVING 19TH CENTURY EUROPEAN VISUAL AND MATERIAL CULTURE RELATED TO EARTH SCIENCES

Abstract

This article explores, through a case study of Jean–Pierre Alibert's (1820–1905) expedition in Siberia (1844–1857), the relationship established between Earth sciences, mining, and visual arts during the second half of the 19th century. Alibert was a French businessman who discovered an important deposit of graphite in Siberia. He then built a mine to exploit this material which was in high demand to produce pencils. When Alibert returned to Europe in 1857, he created an album of gouaches to commemorate his expedition, and he offered some sculptures composed of graphite and nephrite jade to important scientific institutions in Paris as trophies of the expedition. While a few written sources are available, I will directly question these visual and material sources to situate this case study within the context of its time, and of Earth sciences’ progress and technical achievements, to shed light on the phenomena that characterized the quest for a renewed scientific visual language related to Earth sciences.