He developed an international following for his 1839 folio-sized lithographic erotic series Les Jeunes Femmes, Groupes de Tetes, depicting racy episodes in the life of young women and their lovers.
In 1850 de Villeneuve opened a photographic studio at 18 Rue Bleue, Paris, where his subjects were 'academic studies',[6] small prints of nudes as models for artists.
Realist painter Gustave Courbet was introduced to Vallou de Villeneuve's photographs by fellow artist Alfred Bruyas during the 1850s and used them as source material for his paintings,[12] in particular L'Atelier (1855) and Les Baigneuses (1853).
Germain Bazin and Helene Adhémar (conservator, Department of Paintings at the Louvre) were the commissioners of ”A new century of vision[15]" which gave an essential place for artistic creations of the Second Empire.
The section on “The times of Courbet, Manet, Nadar" was one of the richest in both the number of works presented - forty - and in the range of their subjects: it articulated the parallel between the realistic vision of the painter and the photographer.