An Important Collection of Photographs by Eugène and Adalbert Cuvelier

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Lot 9
  • 9

Eugène Cuvelier 1837-1900

Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 USD
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Description

  • Eugène Cuvelier
  • 'SABLES DE MACHERIN' (ROCKS AND TREES)
salt print, numbered '288' by the photographer in the negative, mounted, titled in an unidentified hand in pencil on the mount, matted, early 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

Exhibited

Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Eugène Cuvelier oder Die Legende vom Wald, March - May 1997

Catalogue Note

One of the unique aspects of the Fontainebleau forest, and one of the chief reasons for its appeal to artists and photographers, was its surprising topographical variety.  Macherin, located on the western edge of Fontainebleau, and typified by large deposits of sand and impressive rock formations, provided artists with very different compositional opportunities than the forest's heavily timbered interior.  In Cuvelier's approach, the severity of the landscape, as well as the stunted appearance of the trees and vegetation, offer a slightly ominous view of the area (see Lots 15 and 38). 

While Gauss accounts for a number of other views by Cuvelier of  Macherin (negative numbers 108, 109, 112, V/3, and V/4), this salt print, made from negative number 288, is not listed.