Doorway to Sèvres Factory (c. 1852): Art, History and Details

Doorway to Sèvres Factory (c. 1852) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Louis-Rémy Robert (French, 1811–1882).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Originally trained by his father as a painter on glass and porcelain, Louis-Rémy Robert was taught photography by Henri-Victor Regnault, a close associate and director of the Sèvres porcelain factory. Particularly known for landscape and architectural views, Robert depicted here the gateway to the Sèvres factory, where he was head of the painting and gilding studio from 1848–1871. He then became director of the factory for eight years. In this scene, the artist not only provided a sense of place, but also transformed a complex composition into a unified, compelling assemblage of shapes, textures, and tonalities. The print is shown with its original waxed paper negative—an unusual occurrence since early negatives have rarely survived the passage of time.

Object facts

• Title: Doorway to Sèvres Factory
• Date: c. 1852
• Creator attribution: Louis-Rémy Robert (French, 1811–1882)
• Culture: France, Sèvres
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: salted paper print, waxed, from waxed paper negative
• Dimensions: Image: 32.7 x 26.2 cm (12 7/8 x 10 5/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1991.37

Collection credit

Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hinson, Tom E. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.