[View of the Seine, Paris]

Gustave Le Gray

1857 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

Le Gray was the central figure in French photography of the 1850s—an artist of the first order, a teacher, and the author of several widely distributed instructional manuals. Born in the outskirts of Paris the only child of a haberdasher, Le Gray studied painting in the studio of Paul Delaroche and made his first daguerreotypes by 1847. His real contributions, however, came in the realm of paper photography. Le Gray produced some of his most popular and memorable works in 1856, 1857, and 1858, including views of Fontainebleau Forest, a series of dramatic seascapes, and Paris itself.

Artist

Gustave Le Gray

Date

1857

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005