Ciel Chargé, Mer Méditerranée, Spring 1857

Details

GUSTAVE LE GRAY (1820-1884)
Ciel Chargé, Mer Méditerranée, Spring 1857
albumen print
red ink facsimile signature stamp on recto; embossed credit and 'EB' monogram stamps1, indistinctly numbered in unknown hand in ink on original card mount
12 1/8 x 16½in. (30.7 x 41.9cm.)

Literature

Janis, The Photography of Gustave Le Gray, Art Institute of Chicago & University of Chicago Press, 1987, p.73, fig.16; Aubenas, Gustave Le Gray 1820-1884, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2002, p.127, pl.147; p.366, fig.132.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

In order to achieve the dramatic effects of tempestuous clouds and water together, Le Gray was known to have combined separate negatives of each. According to Janis: 'Some of Le Gray's experiments with combination printing involve a series of closely observed variations of sea and sky from the rocky Mediterranean shore that faced the Gulf of Lions westward toward a small projecting peninsula with Mount Agde in the distance. There are at least seven variations of this view, altered in rather surprising combinations.' (The Photography of Gustave Le Gray, p.75) This lot is one of those variations.

1 The monogram of Ernest Binant, Le Gray's friend and paper supplier, appears on the orginal mount. (see Gustave Le Gray 1820-1884, p.345, fig.369)

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