Glade in the Forest of Fontainebleau
Artist
Eugène Cuvelier
(French, 1837–1900)
Dateabout 1860
Mediumalbumen print from wet collodion negative
Dimensions34.3 x 25.6 cm (image), 59.3 x 48.9 cm (sheet)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineGift of Richard Wheeler
Object number2008.77
Label TextPhotography rapidly gained popularity among artists in the 19th century. Some appreciated its documentary nature, while others lauded it as an art form in its own right. Among the latter, Cuvelier worked extensively in the Forest of Fontainebleau in the 1850s and ‘60s. He was married to the daughter of the innkeeper at the Auberge Ganne, the epicenter of the Barbizon School. In fact, Cuvelier was originally a visiting artist himself, before settling in the village full-time.
As an adopted local, Cuvelier avoided depicting his neighbors, instead experimenting with the new medium through landscape. His photographs capture the dappled light of the old royal forest, and sometimes the motion-blur of a rustling fern—an artifact of the photographic process that appears to herald the impressionist brushstroke and its ability to capture a fleeting moment. Millet wrote to another artist about Cuvelier’s photographs: “They are taken with taste and in the most beautiful places, all destined to disappear.”ProvenanceRichard Wheeler, Middletown, RIOn View
Not on view
