Untitled (Scene of Fontainebleau) (c. 1853): Art, History and Details

Untitled (Scene of Fontainebleau) (c. 1853) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is André Giroux (French, 1801–1879).

The work and its context

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

Trained as a painter, Giroux was an active amateur photographer during the 1850s. His father manufactured equipment for Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, the inventor of the first photographic process, the daguerreotype. In this early example of his appealing landscape work, Giroux focused on a scene in the Forest of Fontainbleau, a favorite locale for 19th-century French artists. Inspired by the compositions of paintings and lithographs, he carefully framed an engaging, asymmetrical arrangement of rocks, trees, and a primitive pathway. This brilliantly lit wooded environment projects a feeling of peace and harmony, order and balance.

Object facts

• Title: Untitled (Scene of Fontainebleau)
• Date: c. 1853
• Creator attribution: André Giroux (French, 1801–1879)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: salted paper print from waxed paper negative
• Dimensions: Image: 21.3 x 27.5 cm (8 3/8 x 10 13/16 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 66 cm (22 x 26 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1996.9

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Major Works,” March 18, 1996, 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.