Artwork Page for Untitled (Scene of Fontainebleau)

Details / Information for Untitled (Scene of Fontainebleau)

Untitled (Scene of Fontainebleau)

c. 1853

André Giroux

(French, 1801–1879)
Culture
France, 19th century
Medium
salted paper print from waxed paper negative
Measurements
Image: 21.3 x 27.5 cm (8 3/8 x 10 13/16 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 66 cm (22 x 26 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1996.9
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Trained as a painter, Giroux was an active amateur photographer during the 1850s. His father manufactured equipment for Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, the inventor of the first photographic process, the daguerreotype. In this early example of his appealing landscape work, Giroux focused on a scene in the Forest of Fontainbleau, a favorite locale for 19th-century French artists. Inspired by the compositions of paintings and lithographs, he carefully framed an engaging, asymmetrical arrangement of rocks, trees, and a primitive pathway. This brilliantly lit wooded environment projects a feeling of peace and harmony, order and balance.
A horizontally oriented salted paper print depicts a grainy, sepia-toned landscape. A textured pile of craggy rocks anchors the lower left beside a dirt path. Tall trees with slender trunks and leafy canopies rise from the center into a pale, hazy sky. An overgrown stone wall and dark foliage fill the middle and right sections. In the center of the bottom margin, the number "55" is inscribed in faint script.

Untitled (Scene of Fontainebleau)

c. 1853

André Giroux

(French, 1801–1879)
France, 19th century

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