Jules Robuchon, a photographer from Poitiers, France took thousands of stereotypes of the three regions of Poitou (Vienne, Vendee, Deux-Sèvres) which were reproduced as postcards but also as the twelve-volume publication, Paysages et monuments du Poitou (1884 – 1895). Originally printed in woodburytype, Paysages et monuments du Poitou was also published in heliogravure – two hundred and forty-nine to be exact – by the famous atelier, Dujardin. 

In 1893, the criticism was very clear: his work was above all a work intended for intelligent salons, a work of high popularization, but more and more, if [we] judge by the issues currently published, archaeologists and professional historians will find food and pleasure there.  The careful framing and lighting, which contribute to the construction of an atmosphere, transform the images form purely informative photographs into an artistic aesthetic. While the photographs play their documentary role, they also arouse a feeling of loss in the face of urbanization and invite everyone to meditate on the vestiges spared by the changes in cities. [1]

In 1891, Robuchon decided to repeat the experience with five volumes of photogravures from images from Brittany in Paysages Et Monuments De La Bretagne, and, despite the strength of the photographs, it did not meet the same success.

Robuchon founded the Syndicat d’initiative des Voyages en Poitou in 1905, he succeeded Alfred Perlat as a photographer for the Société des antiquaires de l’Ouest . He also forged a reputation as a sculptor. After 1900 he devoted himself more and more to sculpture and to the publication of postcards illustrated with his photos, which he sold in a shop-workshop on rue du Moulin à Vent in Poitiers.