Gustave Le Gray

albumen print, the photographer’s stamped signature in red ink on the image, mounted, his blindstamp on the mount, annotations 'No. 96' and '21.783' in ink on mount, framed, an Art of Photography: 1839-1989 exhibition label on the reverse, 1855-57

Daniel Wolf, New York, 1996

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, The Art of Photography: 1839-1989, February-April 1989; and traveling to Canberra, Australian National Gallery, June-August 1989; and London, Royal Academy of Arts, September-December 1989

Mike Weaver, ed., The Art of Photography, 1839-1989 (Yale University Press, 1989), pl. 92 (this print)

Brooks Johnson, Nineteenth Century French Photography (Chrysler Museum, 1983), p. 9 (likely this print)

After Daguerre: Masterworks of French Photography (1848-1900) from the Bibliothèque Nationale (The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Paris, 1980), fig. 24

Eugenia Parry Janis, The Photography of Gustave Le Gray (Chicago, 1987), pl. 13

Sylvie Aubenas, Gustave Le Gray 1820-1884 (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002), fig. 119, cat. 92

Weston Naef, Photographers of Genius at the Getty (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004), pl. 13

Kimberly Jones, Simon Kelly, Sarah Kennel, and Helga Aurisch, In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet (National Gallery of Art, 2008), pl. 36

Simon Kelly and April M. Watson, Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet (Saint Louis Art Museum and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2013), pl. 45

This impressive albumen print has deep red/brown dark tones and cream-white highlights. On a scale of 1 to 10 -- a 10 being an albumen print with deep dark tones and highlights that retain all of their original detail -- this print rates a 10. The albumen coating on this print is very light, and its surface has only a very soft sheen. The print is exquisitely rendered, and Le Gray has done a masterful job of managing the radically different tonal values of the sunlit tree trunk and the shadowed depths of the trees foliage. It is, from both a technical and aesthetic standpoint, a very compelling print. When examined in raking light, a network of faint linear indentations can be seen on the surface of the print in the upper portion --- these do not break the emulsion. Also visible in the same area is a crease that disrupts, but does not break, the emulsion. In the left portion of the print is a round area that appears slightly less glossy than its surroundings -- this is possibly due to uneven coating of the albumen. The mount is quite worn and soiled. There is evidence of old moisture damage in the upper left and middle right portion of the mount, not affecting the image. There are tears in the edges of the mount on the right and top edges, although these do not encroach upon the image.
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