Nîmes, Porte d'Auguste
ca. 1864
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 21.6 x 28.1 cm (8 1/2 x 11 1/16 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
2005.100.364.42
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, photographer Édouard Baldus captured the timeless grandeur of ancient Roman architecture in *Nîmes, Porte duguste* (ca. 1864). This albumen silver print depicts the Porte d'Auguste a majestic triumphal arch in Nîmes, France, built in the 16th century BCE to honor Augustus but rooted in even earlier Roman engineering. Baldus, renowned for his precise architectural documentation, was part of France's official efforts to record national monuments, blending sharp detail with dramatic lighting to evoke the structure's enduring power. Baldus's work exemplifies the golden ag...
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...