Arles, Amphithéâtre
1860 or earlier
Medium
Albumen silver print from paper negative
Dimensions
Image: 32.3 x 42.3 cm (12 11/16 x 16 5/8 in.) Mount: 46 x 60.5 cm (18 1/8 x 23 13/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.364.49
Tags
Art Historical Context
Édouard Baldus'sArles, Amphithéâtre* (ca. 1860 or) captures the majestic Roman amphitheater in Arles, France—a testament to the enduring legacy of ancient engineering. This albumen silver print from a negative showcases Baldus's as one of the 19th century's premier architectural photographers. Working in France during the Second Empire, he was commissioned by the government to document the nation's historic monuments, preserving their grandeur amid rapid modernization. The medium's significance lies in its technical innovation: albumen prints, coated with egg whites and sensitized with silver...
About the Artist
Edouard Baldus · 1813–1889
Édouard-Denis Baldus (1813–1889), born in Grünebach, Prussia, moved to Paris in 1838 at age twenty-five to study painting outside the École des Beaux-Arts and atelier system. Trained initially as a painter, draughtsman, and lithographer, he exhibited at the Paris Salons from 1841 to 1851 without notable recognition. Around 1849, Baldus pivoted to photography, embracing William Henry Fox Talbot's p...