Getty Museum
The Tugboat
Creator
Gustave Le GrayFrench Photographer · 1820–1884
All works by this person →Though he was trained as a painter, Gustave Le Gray made his mark in the emerging medium of photography. An experimenter and technical innovator, Le Gray pioneered the use of the paper negative in France and developed a waxed-paper negative that produced sharper-focus prints. In 1851 he began to use collodion on glass negatives, which further increased the clarity of his images. He became one of t
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1857
- Medium
- Albumen silver print
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
- Object ID
- 9555f7b2-e33b-4c0c-9038-76dccbc87b99
From the Getty Museum record
Alternately titled *Le Vapeur* (The Steamship), this photograph of a tugboat leaving a black cloud of steam in its wake is a study in atmospheric textures. Presumably pulling the sailing ship back to port, the tugboat, which is dwarfed by the luxury boat, exerts itself fully, judging from the vaporous emission that it spouts in the effort. The activity stands in dramatic relief to the serenity of the sea that it crosses; a few other boats are barely visible dots on the horizon. Gustave Le Gray favored such fleeting moments, scenes that existed only long enough to be photographed. He positioned his camera to eliminate all reference to the shoreline, which gives the illusion that the photographer was on the water with the vessels.
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