Pathway in the Forest of Fontainebleau (1849–52): Art, History and Details

Pathway in the Forest of Fontainebleau (1849–52) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884).

The work and its context

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

One of the most inventive and influential French photographers of the 1850s, Le Gray was widely known for his landmark studies taken in the Forest of Fontainbleau, near Paris, from about 1849 to 1857. The photographs share a kinship with the work of the Barbizon painters, such as Corot, Daubigny, and Millet, who also worked there. Le Gray skillfully overcame technical problems to master the photographing of greenery and dark areas and to exploit the visual effects of light and atmosphere. In this enchanting scene, the viewer is drawn almost magnetically into a carriage trail surrounded by a dense archway of trees with sparkling sunlight filtering through the leaves.

Object facts

• Title: Pathway in the Forest of Fontainebleau
• Date: 1849–52
• Creator attribution: Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: salted paper print from waxed paper negative
• Dimensions: Image: 19.1 x 26.5 cm (7 1/2 x 10 7/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1988.64

Collection credit

Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Brettell, Richard R. Paper and Light: The Calotype in France and Great Britain, 1839-1870. Boston: D.R. Godine, 1984.
• "The Year in Review for 1988." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76, no. 2 (1989)
• 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.