La forêt de Fontainebleau (The Forest at Fontainebleau)

La forêt de Fontainebleau (The Forest at Fontainebleau)

ca. 1855
Gustave Le Gray
French, 1820–1884
Salt print from a wax-paper negative
11 5/8 x 14 7/8 in. (29.5 x 37.8 cm)

Gustave Le Gray was one of the first photographers to elevate his medium to an art form. He often photographed the Forest at Fontainebleau, a popular site for landscape painters of the Barbizon School. In these forest photographs, Le Gray alternated between techniques to obtain different results: Those made from paper negatives, such as this one, are hazy and lacking in detail, with tree trunks that appear almost abstract. For other photographs, Le Gray used glass negatives, affording sharply focused, portraitlike images of the textures of natural objects.

1979.36
Yale University Art Gallery, Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903, Fund