{
"data": {
"id": 155367,
"accession_number": "1990.116",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The New Paris Opera: Ornamental Scupture, c. 1865\u201372. Louis-\u00c9mile Durandelle (French, 1839\u20131917). Albumen print from wet collodion negative; image: 28.1 x 38.1 cm (11 1/16 x 15 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1990.116",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Ornamental Scupture",
"series": "The New Paris Opera",
"creation_date": "c. 1865\u201372",
"creation_date_earliest": 1860,
"creation_date_latest": 1877,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "albumen print from wet collodion negative",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "Photography",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 28.1 x 38.1 cm (11 1/16 x 15 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.281,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"width": 0.381,
"width_inch": 15,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "none",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 705705,
"title": "France in the Time of Manet and Morisot",
"description": "France in the Time of Manet and Morisot. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-August 23, 2026).",
"opening_date": "2026-05-10T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "March 27, 1991",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Louis-\u00c9mile Durandelle photographed this sculptural ornament for the new Paris opera house while still in the workshop; he blacked out the background in the negative.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Napoleon III commissioned a new opera house that was adorned with lavishly decorated facades and surfaces inside and out, like this sculptural molding that topped doors in the building\u2019s side galleries. Louis-\u00c9mile Durandelle photographed it while still in the workshop; he blacked out the background in the negative. The opera house became the setting for Gaston LeRoux\u2019s 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, which inspired the 1976 musical and 2004 film.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79943331"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1990.116-ornamental-scupture"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Garnier, Charles, and Louis-E\u0301mile Durandelle. Le nouvel Ope\u0301ra de Paris. 1875.",
"page_number": "pl. 10",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"1990 Photography Acquisitions.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 2 (1991): 46-59.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 47",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161315"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 142",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1990.116",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1990.116/1990.116_web.jpg",
"width": "1212",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "633700",
"filename": "1990.116_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1990.116/1990.116_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2505",
"filesize": "4202341",
"filename": "1990.116_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1990.116/1990.116_full.tif",
"width": "5196",
"height": "3828",
"filesize": "59702956",
"filename": "1990.116_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 155367,
"creators": [
{
"id": 367,
"description": "Louis-\u00c9mile Durandelle (French, 1839\u20131917)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Louis-\u00c9mile Durandelle French, 1839-1917\r\n\r\nBorn in Verdun, Louis-\u00c9mile Durandelle is known for his portrayal of important construction projects that helped Paris achieve its unique mix of ancient and modern architecture during the second half of the 19th century. In partnership with photographer Hyacinthe C\u00e9sar Delmaet (1828-1862), or perhaps with his wife Cl\u00e9mence Jacob Delmaet, whom Durandelle married after Delmaet's death, he recorded the construction and details of some of the city's great new building projects -- including the Sacre Coeur, the new H\u00f4tel de Ville, the archaeological excavations at the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower -- in a direct, almost modernist style. Especially well known is his photographic documentation of the construction of Charles Garnier's Paris Op\u00e9ra, which occupied four of the eight volumes of Le Nouvel Op\u00e9ra de Paris (1875-81).\r\n\tDurandelle stopped photographing in 1890. While his treatment of building and industry can be stark and direct, his unadorned, functional work is attractive to the modern eye. T.W.F.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1839",
"death_year": "1917",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
},
{
"id": 67811,
"description": "Ducher et Cie., Editeurs",
"extent": "published by",
"qualifier": null,
"role": "publisher",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"use_in_caption": false,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 2
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1991-03-27T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1860,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1865\u201372",
"collapse_artists": true,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-09-09 19:14:13.825000"
}
}