Vue prise du Couvent des Dominicains, Chalais (Isère), France (c. 1865): Art, History and Details

Vue prise du Couvent des Dominicains, Chalais (Isère), France (c. 1865) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Félix Thiollier (French, 1842–1914).

The work and its context

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

Félix Thiollier brought to landscape photography the emotional power and mystery of the Barbizon and naturalist painters whom he collected and befriended. This dramatic view provides a deep vista more commonly found in photographs of the Western United States at the time. Underlying it, however, are a geometric structure of overlapping triangles, curved top border, and atmospheric clouds and mist that relate directly to precedents in painting.

Object facts

• Title: Vue prise du Couvent des Dominicains, Chalais (Isère), France
• Date: c. 1865
• Creator attribution: Félix Thiollier (French, 1842–1914)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print from collodion negative
• Dimensions: Image: 13.1 x 20 cm (5 3/16 x 7 7/8 in.); Paper: 13.1 x 20 cm (5 3/16 x 7 7/8 in.); Mounted: 31.7 x 49.1 cm (12 1/2 x 19 5/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2022.36

A detail from the museum

Félix Thiollier, a wealthy industrialist, retired at 35 to pursue photography and local history.

Collection credit

Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg

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.