Chalons Encampment: Maneuvers on October 3 (Camp de Châlons: manoeuvres du 3 octobre)
1857
Medium
Albumen print, from the album "Souvenirs du Camp de Châlons"
Dimensions
27 × 36 cm (10 11/16 × 14 3/16 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
144430
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
After achieving considerable success for his seascapes and studio work, Gustave Le Gray received a monumental commission from Napoléon III in 1857. The emperor asked Le Gray to document the newly inaugurated Camp de Châlons, a vast military training ground for 25,000 troops and 6,000 horses. Le Gray’s results were edited and collated into a series of presentation albums offered by Napoléon III to the principal officers participating in exercises held at the camp (this print is drawn from one suc...
About the Artist
Gustave Le Gray · 1820–1884
Gustave Le Gray, born on August 30, 1820, in Villiers-le-Bel near Paris to a prosperous merchant family, pursued his artistic ambitions against his parents' wishes for a legal career. As an only child, he trained as a painter in the studios of François-Édouard Picot and Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts, exhibiting at the Paris Salons in 1848 and 1853. In 1844, he married Palmira Leonardi...