Courret, Hermanos

In 1863, brothers Eugenio and Aquiles Courret acquired the premises of the Maunory and Company photographic studio and established the premises of the studio called Central Photography, where they offered services considered innovative for their time: studio photography, photographic prints on glass and porcelain, oil-retouched portraits, and hand-colored photographic reproductions of famous paintings, as well as the sale of postcards, albums, cameras, and photographic materials. The artistic and technical quality of the Courret Studio was soon rewarded with public preference. Thus, the Industrial Exhibition of Lima awarded it the Silver Medal in 1869 and the Gold Medal in 1872. In 1873, Eugenio became the sole owner of the business and continued his work until 1892 when he decided to return to his country. Upon leaving, he left the photographic studio in the hands of his compatriot Adolfo Dubreuil, who continued to manage the business until its closure in 1935. Upon closing the business, the studio left approximately 150,000 photographic plates that were distributed as payment among the studio workers. One of these, Carlos Rengifo, compiled and preserved 56,000 of these copies, which were subsequently sold to the National Library of Peru and form the core of the Courret Archive, while the rest are held in private collections.