[Fontainebleau Forest]

Eugène Cuvelier

ca. 1860 · Salted paper print from paper negative · Photographs

The Forest of Fontainebleau-and, in particular, the small town of Barbizon within it-was a popular destination for artists seeking refuge from urban, industrial life in the mid-nineteenth century. With its forty thousand acres of dense woods intercut with rocky gorges and dotted with ancient oaks, Fontainebleau provided an idyllic natural setting for plein-air painters, such as Corot and Millet, as well as for photographers, including Gustave Le Gray and Eugène Cuvelier. Although the process of making salted paper prints from paper negatives was already somewhat antiquated by the 1860s, Cuvelier chose the technique because of its aesthetic qualities-the soft fibrous effect of the paper negative and the velvety mat surface of the print.

Artist

Eugène Cuvelier

Date

ca. 1860

Medium

Salted paper print from paper negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1987