Road in the Forest

1860–1863

Eugène Cuvelier

(French, 1837–1900)

Culture

France, 19th century

Medium

salted paper print from waxed paper negative

Measurements

Image: 25.8 x 19.8 cm (10 3/16 x 7 13/16 in.); Matted: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)

Credit Line

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1989.29

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Location

Not on view

Description

Eugène Cuvelier was a landscape painter as well as a photographer. During the 1850s and 1860s, he photographed in an number of forests near Paris. He was also associated with the Barbizon painters, a group working in the village of Barbizon that advocated the direct study of nature. This exquisite snow scene exemplifies Cuvelier's distinguished and influential landscape work. The artist took advantage of the inherent softness of his photographic process to create an atmospheric rendering of a winter scene with a curving pathway that draws the viewer into the dense, barely defined background of foliage. Many of the trees Cuvelier recorded disappeared soon after the photographs were taken.