Landscape with Seated Figure on Stream Bank (c. 1856): Art, History and Details

Landscape with Seated Figure on Stream Bank (c. 1856) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Frank Chauvassaignes (French).

The work and its context

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

Flooded with bright light and enveloped in deep shadows, this romantic landscape is the remarkable achievement of the early French photographer Chauvassaignes, about whom little biographical information is known. His mastery of composition and technique reveals itself in this picturesque composition of water, stream banks, trees, and foliage, evoking a feeling of great tranquility. Inspired by the compositions of paintings and lithographs, Chauvassaignes exploited the inherent characteristics of the paper negative, enabling him to subordinate details while emphasizing the effects of light and shadow. The idyllic view, contemplated by a solitary seated gentleman, recedes into deep space through flickering sunlight and leafy boughs. A photographer with a trained and sophisticated eye, Chauvassaignes conveyed an uncommon intimacy in this forest landscape, a favorite subject of mid-19th-century artists.

Object facts

• Title: Landscape with Seated Figure on Stream Bank
• Date: c. 1856
• Creator attribution: Frank Chauvassaignes (French)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: salted paper print from waxed paper negative
• Dimensions: Image: 16.5 x 21.5 cm (6 1/2 x 8 7/16 in.); Mounted: 25.1 x 32.5 cm (9 7/8 x 12 13/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1999.51

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Contemporary German Painting Acquired by CMA,” June 9, 1999, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

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.