id:			153597
accession number:	1987.130
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.130
updated:		2024-03-26 02:40:55.978000

The Bridge of Palalda (near Amelieles-Bains) , 1851–1852. Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884). Salted paper print from waxed paper negative; image: 23.8 x 32.7 cm (9 3/8 x 12 7/8 in.); matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1987.130

title:				The Bridge of Palalda (near Amelieles-Bains) 
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1851–1852
creation date earliest:		1851
creation date latest:		1852
current location:		
creditline:			John L. Severance Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	France, 19th century
technique:	salted paper print from waxed paper negative
department:	Photography
collection:	PH - French 19th Century
type:		Photograph
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884)  - artist
Gustave Le Gray French, 1820-1884

A master both technically and aesthetically, Gustave Le Gray (born in Villiers-le-Bel) was one of the most important figures in 19th-century French photography, bringing to the medium artistic integrity and visual imagination. Le Gray, trained as a painter, was exhibiting his work in the Paris Salons in the late 1840s and early 1850s when he became interested in photography. Along with Henri Le Secq and Charles Nègre, he was a student of Paul Delaroche, a painter of considerable reputation and ability who was one of the first to grasp the importance of photography.
	In 1851 Le Gray announced his invention of a waxed paper negative, a significant improvement over earlier paper methods that was later adopted by Louis de Clercq, Dr. August Jakob Lorent, and others. That same year the Commission des Monuments historiques named him as one of five photographers of the Mission héliographique, for which he produced well-known studies of army maneuvers at Chalons. Le Gray also worked with François Arago, the scientist and champion of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, and later proposed a new method of toning prints, among other innovations.
	Le Gray was perhaps most admired for the effects he achieved with water and sky. To capture the subtle qualities of cloud patterns in some of his seascapes, he employed two negatives to produce the final image. His commissioned studies of historic monuments are classic examples of early architectural photography. In the early 1850s he worked in the Barbizon tradition at Fontainebleau and, in 1860, documented the uprising against François II in Palermo. He was a founding member of the Société héliographique and the Société française de photographie. Despite his influence and artistic success, Le Gray left Paris in 1865 to become a professor of design at the École Polytechnique in Cairo. He died in Egypt. T.W.F.
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measurements: Image: 23.8 x 32.7 cm (9 3/8 x 12 7/8 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	Written in pencil on recto of mount: "Gustave LeGray c. 1851"; in pencil on verso: "Le Gray"; "g [in center of a triangle - monogram ?]"
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		The Year in Review for 1987
	opening date:   1988-02-24T05:00:00
	<i>The Year in Review for 1987</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).

	title:		Drawn with Light: Pioneering French Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art
	opening date:   2005-02-26T00:00:00
	<i>Drawn with Light: Pioneering French Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 26-June 16, 2005).

	title:		France at the Dawn of Photography
	opening date:   2009-10-04T00:00:00
	<i>France at the Dawn of Photography</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 4, 2009-January 24, 2010).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* {'description': 'CMA, February 24 - April 17, 1988: "Year in Review 1987," CMA Bulletin, 75 (February 1988), p. 67, no. 65.', 'opening_date': '1988-02-24T00:00:00'}

* {'description': 'Cleveland, Ohio:  The Cleveland Museum of Art; February 26 - June 16, 2005 . "Drawn with Light: Pioneering French Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art".', 'opening_date': '2005-02-26T00:00:00'}

* {'description': 'The Cleveland Museum of Art (10/04/2009 - 01/24/2010); "France at the Dawn of Photography"', 'opening_date': '2009-10-04T00:00:00'}

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PROVENANCE

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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. <em>Catalogue of Photography</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
	page number: 	Reproduced: P. 221
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.130/1987.130_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.130/1987.130_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.130/1987.130_full.tif