id: 153753 accession number: 1987.54 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.54 updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:01.459000 An Effect of the Sun, Normandy, c. 1856. Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884). Albumen print from wet collodion negative; image: 32 x 41.8 cm (12 5/8 x 16 7/16 in.); matted: 55.9 x 71.1 cm (22 x 28 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1987.54 title: An Effect of the Sun, Normandy title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1856 creation date earliest: 1851 creation date latest: 1861 current location: creditline: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: albumen print from wet collodion negative department: Photography collection: Photography type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- 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. --- measurements: Image: 32 x 41.8 cm (12 5/8 x 16 7/16 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 71.1 cm (22 x 28 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in red ink on recto: "Gustave Le Gray"; on label on recto: "All titles Effet du [sic] Soleil Ocean No. 23" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Year in Review for 1987 opening date: 1988-02-24T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988). title: Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum opening date: 1991-06-07T04:00:00 Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991). title: Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 1996-11-24T05:00:00 Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997). title: Drawn with Light: Pioneering French Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2005-02-26T00:00:00 Drawn with Light: Pioneering French Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art. 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 France at the Dawn of Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 4, 2009-January 24, 2010). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Philadelphia Museum of Art, Nov. 17 - Dec. 28, 1969: "French Primitive Photography." Exhibition catalogue p. 47, repr. p. 47.', 'opening_date': '1969-11-17T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, February 24 - April 17, 1988: "Year in Review 1987," CMA Bulletin, 75 (February 1988), p. 67, no. 66, repr. p. 58-59.', 'opening_date': '1988-02-24T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, June 29 - August 26, 1990: "The World Seen Anew: English and French Photographs of the 1850\'s," Gallery D, no exhibition catalogue.', 'opening_date': '1990-06-29T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, June 7 - September 8, 1991: "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum."', 'opening_date': '1991-06-07T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art."', 'opening_date': '1997-02-02T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Galeries Mansart and Mazarine, Richelieu, France, March 19 - June 16, 2002: "Gustave Le Gray, 1820-1884." Aubenas, Sylvie. Gustave Le Gray, 1820-1884 (Gallimard: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2002). (Also exhibited at The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, July 9 - Sept. 29, 2002). Catalogue no. 130. p. 110.', 'opening_date': '2002-03-19T00:00:00'} * {'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'} --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: P. 221 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.54/1987.54_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.54/1987.54_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.54/1987.54_full.tif