Marseille
ca. 1861
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 27.1 x 42.5 cm (10 11/16 x 16 3/4 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
2005.100.364.58
Tags
Art Historical Context
Édouard Baldus's *Marseille* (ca. 1861) captures the architectural grandeur of this vibrant French port city through the lens of one of the 19th century's premier photographers. Working in the Second Empire era under Napoleon III, Baldus in monumental views of France's public works and historic sites, often commissioned by the government to document national heritage. This albumen silver print from a negative showcases his mastery of large-format photography, rendering intricate details of buildings, towers and urban structures with stunning clarity. The medium—albumen prints—revolutionized p...
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...