La Ciotat, Bec de l'Aigle
ca. 1861
Medium
Albumen silver print from paper negative
Dimensions
Image: 32.1 x 42.3 cm (12 5/8 x 16 5/8 in.) Mount: 46 x 60.5 cm (18 1/8 x 23 13/16 in.) Mat: 55.9 x 71.1 cm (22 x 28 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
2005.100.364.63
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the sun-drenched hills of La Ciotat, a town in Provence, France Édouard Baldus captures the majestic *Bec de l'Aigle*—"Eagle's Beak"— this stunning albumen silver print from around 1861. Baldus, a pioneering French photographer of the 1850s and 1860s, was renowned for his documentation and expansive landscapes, often commissioned by the French government to preserve national monuments. Here, the rugged promontory rises dramatically against the sky, embodying the Romantic allure of untamed nature that captivated 19th-century viewers. Printed from a paper negative using the calotype process—...
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...