id: 154252
accession number: 1988.64
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.64
updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:03.896000
Pathway in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 1849–52. Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884). Salted paper print from waxed paper negative; image: 19.1 x 26.5 cm (7 1/2 x 10 7/16 in.); matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 1988.64
title: Pathway in the Forest of Fontainebleau
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1849–52
creation date earliest: 1849
creation date latest: 1852
current location:
creditline: Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial 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: 19.1 x 26.5 cm (7 1/2 x 10 7/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
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inscriptions:
inscription: Written in black ink on recto: "Gustave Le Gray [signed]"
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remark:
inscription: written in pencil on verso: "CW.56 / STL / 125"
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remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: The Year in Review for 1988
opening date: 1989-03-01T05:00:00
The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989).
title: Pioneers of Landscape Photography from the Museum's Collection
opening date: 2000-08-12T00:00:00
Pioneers of Landscape Photography from the Museum's Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 12, 2000-January 3, 2001).
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).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'Paper and Light: The Calotype in France and Great Britain, 1839-1870. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (September 24-November 21, 1982).', 'opening_date': '1982-09-24T00:00:00'}
* {'description': 'Gustave Le Gray, 1820-1884. Galeries Mansart and Mazarine, Richelieu, France (March 19-June 16, 2002); The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (July 9-September 29, 2002).', 'opening_date': '2002-03-19T00:00:00'}
* {'description': 'The World Seen Anew: English and French Photographs of the 1850s. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 29-August 26, 1990). Gallery D.', 'opening_date': '1990-06-29T00:00:00'}
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PROVENANCE
Charles Henry Miller [1842-1922], New York, NY
date:
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citations:
Paul Cava [1949-], Philadelphia, PA
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David Mancini
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citations:
(Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., New York, NY)
date: ?-1988
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The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: September 22, 1988
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citations:
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Brettell, Richard R. Paper and Light: The Calotype in France and Great Britain, 1839-1870. Boston: D.R. Godine, 1984.
page number: p. 9, repr. p. 9.
url:
"The Year in Review for 1988." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76, no. 2 (1989)
page number: p. 70, no. 64, repr. p. 60.
url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25160061.
Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: P. 221
url:
Aubenas, Sylvie, Gustave Le Gray, and Gordon Baldwin. Gustave Le Gray, 1820-1884. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002.
page number: Catalogue no. 267, p. 230.
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1988.64/1988.64_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1988.64/1988.64_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1988.64/1988.64_full.tif