Notre-Dame (Abside)
1860s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
21.7 x 28.6 cm. (8 9/16 x 11 1/4 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1944
Accession Number
44.55.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
Édouard Baldus'sNotre-Dame (Abside, created in the 1860s, offers a mesmerizing close-up view of the apse of's iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral. This albumen silver print from a negative, measuring 21.7 x 28.6 cm, captures the Gothic details of the structure—the flying buttresses, ornate stonework, and soaring arches—that define 12th- and 13th-century French architecture. Baldus, a pioneering French photographer, was renowned for his precise documentation of historic monuments, often commissioned by Napoleon III's government to preserve France's architectural heritage amid rapid modernization. The ...
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...