East End, Troyes Cathedral under Restoration, France
1863
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 14 3/16 × 10 11/16 in. (36.1 × 27.2 cm) Sheet: 21 13/16 × 17 3/16 in. (55.4 × 43.6 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Joyce F. Menschel, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2019
Accession Number
2019.348.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the intricate world of 19th-century French architecture with Charles Marville's *East End, Troyes Cathedral Restoration, France* (1863). This albumen silver print masterfully captures the Gothic splendor of Troyes Cathedral's east end amid active restoration, showcasing scaffolding, workers, and the soaring stone facade. Marville, Paris's official photographer under Napoleon III, was renowned for his precise documentation of urban transformations, his keen eye to historic sites like this Champagne-region masterpiece. Troyes Cathedral, a of High Gothic design from the 13th to 16th ce...
About the Artist
Charles Marville · 1813–1879
**Charles Marville**, born Charles François Bossu on July 17, 1813, in Paris, adopted his professional pseudonym around 1832 to avoid the stigma of "bossu," meaning hunchback in French. Trained as a painter, engraver, and illustrator, he spent nearly two decades producing woodblock illustrations for books and magazines before embracing photography around 1850. His transition coincided with the med...