About This Image

Photographer\'s name is embossed on recto of the mount at the lower right just below the photograph, which is his earliest mark.

The image is probably from Le Gray\'s first trip to Fontainebleau in 1849. It was certainly taken either then or on his second trip in 1851. This image is not in the Le Gray Catalogue Raisonné and may be a unique print.

Provenance: from the collection of Duc de Luynes; through his heirs. Duc de Luynes was highly interested in archeology, numismatics, art, architecture and photography; and he collected all of these articles. He sponsored a major contest for the first method of easy printing of photography and also sponsored numerous photographers and their work, often bringing photographers on his travels, such as the one to Lebanon and Palestine in 1864, when he brought the amateur photographer Louis Vignes along to take photographs of the trip. He sponsored the Bisson brothers on their trip to Italy to document the major architectural ruins and important building there. The duke\'s collection of 19th-century photography is considered the most important such collection of that period.

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