Hôtel du Bourgtheroulde, Rouen

Art Historical Context

Step into the elegant world of 19th Rouen with Edmond Bacot's *Hôtel du Bourgthere, Rouen* (1852–54), a salted paper print that masterfully captures the Renaissance splendor of this historic hotel. Nestled in Normandy, France, the Hôtel du Bourgtherould exemplifies Flamboyant Gothic and early Renaissance architecture, with its intricate stone facades, ornate carvings, and half-ted charm. Bacot, a pioneering French photographer, documented such architectural treasures during photography's infancy, preserving them with remarkable fidelity for future generations. Printed from a glass negative using the salted paper process—a technique perfected in the 1840s by William Henry Fox Talbot—this 33.6 x 24.9 cm image showcases early photography's delicate tonalities and fine detail. The glass negative, likely produced via the wet collodion method emerging around 1851, allowed for sharper resolution than earlier paper negatives, making it ideal for architectural subjects where texture and proportion shine. Acquired through the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund and housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Photographs Department, this work highlights photography's rapid evolution as a tool for cultural documentation. It invites us to appreciate not just the building's timeless beauty, but the artistic innovation that first froze such scenes in silver salts.