Near the Bodmer Oak, Fontainebleau

Eugène Cuvelier

1860s · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

Having learned to make photographs from his father at a very young age, Cuvelier devoted himself fulltime to the depiction of nature, particularly at the forest of Fontainebleau, beginning in the 1860s. Ensconced in the artistic milieu of pre-Impressionist plein-air painters near the village of Barbizon, Cuvelier sought out untrodden paths, like this grove of trees and thick underbrush in the old-growth section of the forest. Only the photograph’s title reveals the proximity of the sun-dappled spot to the famous Bodmer Oak, immortalized in Claude Monet’s 1865 painting (MMA 64.210).

Artist

Eugène Cuvelier

Date

1860s

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of Joyce F. Menschel, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2019