An Important Collection of Photographs by Eugène and Adalbert Cuvelier

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Lot 21
  • 21

Eugène Cuvelier 1837-1900

Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
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Description

  • Eugène Cuvelier
  • 'AU BAS DU POINT DE VUE DU CAMP'
salt print, numbered '289' by the photographer in the negative, mounted, titled in an unidentified hand in pencil on the mount, matted, 1860s

Provenance

The collection of John Chandler Bancroft, Middletown, Rhode Island

Gustave J. S. White Co., Auctioneers, Newport, Rhode Island, 1989

Acquired from the above by a New England antiques dealer

To the present owners, 1989

Literature

Another print of this image:

Ulrike Gauss, Henning Weidemann, and Daniel Challe, Eugène Cuvelier (Stuttgart, 1996, in conjunction with the exhibition), no. 289

Catalogue Note

Cuvelier may have made this photograph at, or more probably near, the Point de View de Camp de Chailly, an elevated vantage point in the western portion of Fontainebleau forest, a short distance from the village of Barbizon.  Clearly made from within the forest interior, the photograph captures a surprising amount of detail on the surface of the two imposing lichen-covered rocks, and in the vegetation and sandy soil of the foreground.  The low and shifting light of the forest would have created a significant technical challenge for Cuvelier, as would the limited light-sensitivity of his materials.  Yet the resulting photograph shows no evidence that Cuvelier's creativity was hampered in any way.       

Gauss does not account for this salt print in her census, but lists one albumen print.