Cleveland Museum of Art

Untitled (Scene of Fontainebleau)

Date

c. 1853

Medium

salted paper print from waxed paper negative

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Photography

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Trained as a painter, Giroux was an active amateur photographer during the 1850s. His father manufactured equipment for Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, the inventor of the first photographic process, the daguerreotype. In this early example of his appealing landscape work, Giroux focused on a scene in the Forest of Fontainbleau, a favorite locale for 19th-century French artists. Inspired by the compositions of paintings and lithographs, he carefully framed an engaging, asymmetrical arrangement of rocks, trees, and a primitive pathway. This brilliantly lit wooded environment projects a feeling of peace and harmony, order and balance.

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