The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

Notre-Dame, Paris

Notre-Dame, Paris

1852–53
(French, 1813–1889)
France, 19th century
salted paper print from wet collodion negative
Image: 29.5 x 44.7 cm (11 5/8 x 17 5/8 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund 1991.35
Location: not on view

Description

This extraordinary photograph clearly demonstrates Baldus’s genius both as an architectural photographer and as a printer. Centrally placed and filling the entire composition, this great architectural monument is clearly depicted, seemingly removed from time, as there are no interfering elements such as figures or clouds to distract from the building’s majesty. This large, ambitious view captures, almost without rival, the physical and symbolic essence of Notre-Dame. Instead of the traditional frontal view, Baldus photographed the building at an oblique angle in order to articulate the volume of the structure, and he was most conscious of the negative space created by the cathedral’s contour against the unmodulated sky. His salt prints of architectural views, with their breathtaking warm gray tones, are among the most striking achievements of 19th-century photography.
  • Alain Paviot, Paris
  • Hinson, Tom E. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 92 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 91
  • Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (October 19, 2013-February 9, 2014).
    The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (10/19/2013 - 2/9/2014): "Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet"
    Drawn with Light: Pioneering French Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 26-June 16, 2005).
    Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; February 26 - June 16, 2005 . "Drawn with Light: Pioneering French Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art".
    Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).
    CMA, June 7 - September 15, 1991: "Notable Acquisitions," CMA Bulletin, 78 (June 1991), p. 92, repr.
    Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, October 27 - December 6, 1982: "La Photographie Comme Modele," p. 63, no. 61.
  • {{cite web|title=Notre-Dame, Paris|url=false|author=Édouard Baldus|year=1852–53|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1991.35