Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray (; 30 August 1820 – 30 July 1884)Le Corre, Florence

"Translated from the catalogue ''Une visite au camp de Châlons sous le Second Empire: photographies de Messieurs Le Gray, Prévot...'', Paris: musée de l'Armée, 1996, pp. 130-131." Retrieved September 15, 2008. was a French painter, draughtsman, sculptor, print-maker, and photographer. He has been called "the most important French

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

of the nineteenth century" because of his technical innovations, his instruction of other noted photographers, and "the extraordinary imagination he brought to picture making."

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

Gustave Le Gray, Photographer. July 9 - September 29, 2002.
Retrieved September 14, 2008. He was an important contributor to the development of the wax paper negative.

Biography

Gustave Le Gray was born on 30 August 1820 in

Villiers-le-Bel Villiers-le-Bel is a commune in the French department of Val-d'Oise, in the northern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the center of Paris. History A tragedy occurred in the town in the early evening of March 25, 1818, when a cracked 6,0 ...

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.

. He was an only child, and his parents encouraged him to become a solicitor's clerk, but from a young age, he aspired to be an artist. He was originally trained as a

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, studying under

François-Édouard Picot François-Édouard Picot (; 10 October 1786 in Paris – 15 March 1868 in Paris) was a French painter during the July Monarchy, painting mythological, religious and historical subjects. Life Born in Paris, Picot won the Prix de Rome painti ...

and

Paul Delaroche Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (17 July 1797 – 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subjects from English ...

. His parents financed a trip to Switzerland and Italy so that he could study art abroad, and he lived in Italy between 1843-1846 and painted portraits and scenes of the countryside. In 1844, he met and married Palmira Maddalena Gertrude Leonardi (born 23 March 1823), a laundress who he had six children with, although only two survived into adulthood. Le Gray exhibited his paintings at the

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

in 1848 and 1853. He then crossed over to

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

in the early years of its development. He made his first

daguerreotype Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...

s by 1847. His early photographs included portraits; scenes of nature such as

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissement ...

Forest; and buildings such as

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

x of the Loire Valley.Janis, Eugenia Parry
Gustave Le Gray. (French, 1820-1882).

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, "from Grove Art Online." Oxford University Press, 2007. Retrieved September 15, 2008. LeGray portrait

He taught photography to students such as

Charles Nègre Charles Nègre (; 9 May 1820 – 16 January 1880) was a pioneering photographer, born in Grasse, France. He studied under the painters Paul Delaroche, Ingres and Drolling before establishing his own studio at 21 Quai Bourbon on the Île Saint-L ...

Henri Le Secq Jean-Louis-Henri Le Secq des Tournelles (18 August 1818 – 26 December 1882) was a French painter and photographer. After the French government made the daguerreotype open for public in 1839, Le Secq was one of the five photographers selected ...

Nadar Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloon (aircraft), balloonist, and proponent of Aircraft#Heavier-than-air – aerodynes, h ...

Olympe Aguado Count Olympe-Clemente-Alexandre-Auguste Aguado de las Marismas (3 February 1827 – 25 October 1894) was a Franco-Spanish photographer and socialite, active primarily in the 1850s and 1860s. One of several early photographers who learned the prac ...

, and

Maxime Du Camp Maxime Du Camp (8 February 1822 – 9 February 1894) was a French writer and photographer. Biography Born in Paris, Du Camp was the son of a successful surgeon. After finishing college, he indulged in his strong desire for travel, thanks to ...

.Denis Canguilhem, John Hannavy (ed.),
Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography
', Vol. 1 (Routledge, 2007), p. 21. In 1851, he became one of the first five photographers hired for the

Missions Héliographiques Missions Héliographiques was a 19th-century project to photograph landmarks and monuments around France so that they could be restored. The project was established by Prosper Mérimée, France's Inspector General of Historical Monuments and autho ...

to document French monuments and buildings. In that same year, he helped found the Société Héliographique, the "first photographic organization in the world." Le Gray published a treatise on photography, which went through four editions, in 1850, 1851, 1852, and 1854. In 1855, Le Gray opened a "lavishly furnished" studio. At that time, becoming progressively the official photographer of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

, he became a successful portraitist. His most famous work dates from this period, 1856 to 1858, especially his seascapes. The studio was a fancy place, but in spite of his artistic success, his business was a financial failure: the business was poorly managed and ran into debts.

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Thematic Essays. Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884).
October 2004. Retrieved September 15, 2008. He therefore "closed his studio, abandoned his wife and children, and fled the country to escape his creditors." He began to tour the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

in 1860 with the writer

Alexandre Dumas, père Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where ''Suffix (name)#Generational titles, '' is French language, French for 'father', to distinguish him from ...

. They encountered

Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...

during the trip and Le Gray photographed Garibaldi and

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

. His striking pictures of

and

under Sicilian bombardment became as instantly famous throughout Europe. Dumas abandoned Le Gray and the other travelers in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and joined the revolutionary forces as a result of a personal conflict. Le Gray went to

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

, then Syria where he covered the movements of the French army for a magazine in 1861. Injured, he remained there before heading to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. In

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

he photographed Henri d'Artois and the future

Edward VII of the United Kingdom Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

, and wrote to

while sending him pictures. In 1862, his wife Leonardi returned to Rome, requesting and receiving 150 francs for financial assistance. In 1863, Leonardi asked Le Gray to provide her with a monthly pension of 50 or 60 francs. He established himself in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

in 1864; earning a modest living as a professor of drawing, while retaining a small photography shop. He sent pictures to the universal exhibition in 1867 but they did not really catch anyone's attention. He received commissions from the vice-king Ismail Pasha. From this late period there remain 50 pictures. In 1868, a collection of photographic seascapes by Gustave Le Gray was donated by millionaire art collector Chauncy Hare Townshend to the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. (He had kept them in portfolios along with his watercolors, etchings and engravings; they therefore remained in excellent condition, preserved to museum standards almost since they were made.) On 16 January 1883, he had a son with the nineteen-year-old Anaïs Candounia. Registration of their sons birth was voided due to lack of proof of Leonardi's death. Le Gray died on 30 July 1884, in

. His only surviving child from his marriage to Leonardi, Alfred, was designated as his heir.

Technical innovations

His technical innovations included: * Improvements on

paper negative The paper negative process consists of using a negative printed on paper (either photographically or digitally) to create the final print of a photograph, as opposed to using a modern negative on a film base A film base is a transparent substrat ...

s, specifically waxing them before exposure "making the paper more receptive to fine detail". Rosenblum, Naomi. ''A world history of photography'', 4th edition. New York: Abbeville, 2007. * A

collodion process The collodion process is an early photographic process. The collodion process, mostly synonymous with the "collodion wet plate process", requires the photographic material to be coated, sensitized, exposed, and developed within the span of about ...

published in 1850 but which was "theoretical at best".Peres, Michael R. ''The Focal encyclopedia of photography digital imaging, theory and applications, history, and science'', 4th edition. Amsterdam and Boston: Elsevier/Focal Press, 2007. The invention of the wet collodion method to produce a negative on a glass plate is now credited to

Frederick Scott Archer ] Frederick Scott Archer (1813 – 1 May 1857) was an English photographer and sculptor who is best known for having invented the photographic collodion process which preceded the modern gelatin emulsion. He was born in either Bishop's Stortfor ...

who published his process in 1851. *

Combination printing Combination printing is the photographic technique of using the negatives of two or more images in conjunction with one another to create a single image. Similar to dual-negative landscape photography, combination printing was technically much m ...

, creating seascapes by using one negative for the water and one negative for the sky.

Works

Le Gray documented French monuments on a mission for the French government with other French photographers. He was a successful portrait photographer, capturing figures such as

and

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

. He also became famous for his seascapes, or marine. He spent 20 years in

, but there are few works from this period.

World records for most expensive photograph sold at auction, 1999–2003

Gustave Le Gray (French - The Beech Tree - Google Art Project

In October 1999,

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

sold a Le Gray

albumen print The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was published in January 1847 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, and was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative. It us ...

"Beech Tree, Fontainebleau" for £419,500, which was a world record for the most expensive single photograph ever sold at auction, to an anonymous buyer.Melikian, Souren
Early photos appeal to modern buyers: shedding light on the lost past.
''International Herald Tribune'', November 6, 1999. Retrieved September 14, 2008. At the same auction, an albumen print of "The Great Wave, Sète" by Le Gray was sold for a new world record price of £507,500 or $840,370 to "the same anonymous buyer" who was later revealed to be Sheik Saud Al-Thani of

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. The record stood until May 2003 when Al-Thani purchased a daguerreotype by

Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (21 October 1804 – 7 December 1892) was a French photographer and drawing, draughtsman who was active in the Middle East. His daguerreotypes are the earliest surviving photographs of Greece, Palestine (region) ...

for £565,250 or $922,488.Christie's London sale of daguerreotypes by Girault De Prangey sets world auction record for a photograph at over $925,000.
''E-Photo Newsletter'', Issue 59, July 3, 2003. Retrieved September 15, 2008.

Books

* ''A practical treatise on photography, upon paper and glass'' by Gustave Le Gray, (translated by Thomas Cousins) London : T. & R. Willats, 1850. * ''Photographic manipulation: the waxed paper process of Gustave Le Gray'' by Gustave Le Gray. Translated from the French. London: George Knight and Sons, 1853.

Gallery

File:GustaveLeGray.jpg, Central portal of the Church of Saint-Jacques, Aubeterre, France (1851) File:Train station with train and coal depot by Gustave Le Gray1.jpg, ''Train station with train and coal depot'', digitally restored File:Gustave Le Gray (French - Cloudy Sky - Mediterranean Sea (Ciel Charge - Mer Mediterranee)) - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Cloudy Sky - Mediterranean Sea'' File:Gustave Le Gray (French - Seascape with Sailing Ship and Tugboat - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Seascape with Sailing Ship and Tugboat'' File:Gustave Le Gray - Brig upon the Water - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Brig upon the Water'' Image:Gustave Le Gray-The Great Wave.jpg, ''The Great Wave, Sète'' File:Le Gray Forest of Fontainebleau.jpg, Forest of Fountainbleau (1855) Bateaux quittant le port du Havre Le Gray.jpg, Bateaux quittant le port du Havre (1855/1856) File:Gustave Le Gray-Reine Hortense.jpg, Imperial yacht '' Reine Hortense'' (1856) File:Gustave LeGray - Tree, Forest of Fontainebleau - Google Art Project.jpg, Forest of Fontainbleau (circa 1856) File:1858 Gustave Le Gray la batterie Royale à Brest.jpg, Batterie Royale à

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress * Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria * Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France ** Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Br ...

(1858) File:Gustave Le Gray, The Tour St-Jacques, 1859.jpg,

Tour Saint-Jacques The Tour Saint-Jacques (, 'Saint James's Tower') is a monument located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France, at the intersection of Rue de Rivoli with Rue Nicolas Flamel. This Flamboyant Gothic tower is all that remains of the former 16th ...

(1859) File:LeGray Palerme.jpg,

(1860) File:Uzerche by Gustave Le Gray (2).jpg, Waterfront village (

Uzerche Uzerche (; oc, Usercha) is a commune in the Corrèze department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of central France. In 1787, the English writer Arthur Young described the town as "the pearl of the Limousin" because of its picturesque setting. ...

) File:Henri Le Secq portrait.jpg,

(1848) File:Gustave Le Gray, Louis-Napoléon, Prince-President of the Republic, 1852.jpg,

Louis-Napoléon Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

(1852) File:Empress Eugenie 1856.jpg, Empress Eugenie (1856) File:Victor Cousin by Gustave Le Gray, late 1850s.jpg, ''

Victor Cousin Victor Cousin (; 28 November 179214 January 1867) was a French philosopher. He was the founder of "eclecticism", a briefly influential school of French philosophy that combined elements of German idealism and Scottish Common Sense Realism. As ...

'' File:Le Gray, Gustave (1820-1884) - Portrait du général Istvàn Türr (1825-1908) - Palerme, juillet 1860.jpg, General ''

István Türr István Türr ( it, Stefano Türr, french: Étienne Türr), (10 August 1825 in Baja, Hungary – 3 May 1908 in Budapest) was a Hungarian soldier, revolutionary, canal architect and engineer, remembered in Italy for his role in that country's ...

'' (1860) File:Alexandre Dumas 4.jpg,

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...

(1860) File:Napoléon Louis de Méneval (Legray).jpg, File:Gustave Le Gray Dromadaire d artillerie Egypt cca 1866.jpg, Camel transporting artillery, Egypt (1866) File:Napoleon III, 1857.jpg,

, (1857) File:Portrait de Mme G L (Palmira Leonardi, wife of Gustave Le Gray).jpg, ''Portrait of Mme G. L.'' (Palmira Leonardi, wife of the artist), 1853 File:Empress Eugenie by Gustave Le Gray (gift from Isma'il Pasha).jpg, ''Empress Eugénie'', 1869, commissioned by Isma'il Pasha, given to the Empress on the occasion of the inauguration of the Suez Canal File:Le Retour de la fontaine au Caire - Gustave Le Gray.jpg, ''Back from the Fountain, Cairo'', 1873

References

External links

*
Gustave Le Gray Collection
at

*
Gustave Le Gray: Master Photographer of the 19th Century, I Photo Central

''All the Mighty World: The Photographs of Roger Fenton, 1852-1860''
exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Gustave Le Gray (see index)
Krygier, Irit on artnet.com Sublime Le Gray
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Gray, Gustave 1820 births 1884 deaths 19th-century French photographers Orientalist painters Pioneers of photography People from Villiers-le-Bel