The Breaking Wave
1857
Medium
Albumen print, No. 15 from the album "Vistas del Mar"
Dimensions
Image/paper: 41.4 × 33.6 cm (16 5/16 × 13 1/4 in.); Album page: 64.5 × 50.8 cm (25 7/16 × 20 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
126478
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, photographer Gustave Le Gray revolutionized landscape photography with his masterful seascapes, and *The Breaking Wave* (1857) exemplifies his genius. This albumen silver print, number 15 from the albumVistas del Mar*Views of the Sea"), a dramatic moment of surging surf crashing against the Mediterranean shore. Printed on a generous 41. × 33.6 cm, its rich tonal—achieved through the albumen process, where egg whites coated paper sensitized with silver salts—brings the sea's raw power to life with luminous highlights and deep shadows. Le Gray, a pioneer of the calotype...
About the Artist
Gustave Le Gray · 1820–1884
Gustave Le Gray, born on August 30, 1820, in Villiers-le-Bel near Paris to a prosperous merchant family, pursued his artistic ambitions against his parents' wishes for a legal career. As an only child, he trained as a painter in the studios of François-Édouard Picot and Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts, exhibiting at the Paris Salons in 1848 and 1853. In 1844, he married Palmira Leonardi...