Édouard Baldus
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Édouard Baldus (5 June 1813, Grünebach,
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
– 1889, Arcueil) was a French
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
, architectural and railway photographer.


Biography


Early life

Édouard-Denis Baldus was born on 5 June 1813 in Grünebach,
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
. He was originally trained as a painter and had also worked as a draughtsman and
lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...
er before switching to photography in 1849.


Career

In 1851, he was commissioned 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 auth ...
by the Historic Monuments Commission of France to photograph historic buildings, bridges and monuments, many of which were being razed to make way for the grand boulevards of Paris, being carried out under the direction of
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
's
prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...
Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The high quality of his work won him government support for a project entitled ''Les Villes de France Photographiées'', an extended series of architectural views in Paris and the provinces designed to feed a resurgent interest in the nation's Roman and medieval past. In 1855, Baron James de Rothschild, President of Chemin de Fer du Nord, commissioned Baldus to do a series of photographs to be used as part of an album that was to be a gift to
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
and Prince Albert as a souvenir of their visit to France that year. The lavishly bound album is still among the treasures of the Royal Library at
Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...
. In 1856, he set out on a brief assignment to photograph the destruction caused by torrential rains and overflowing rivers in Lyon, Avignon, and Tarascon. He created a moving record of the flood without explicitly depicting the human suffering left in its wake.


Innovations in photography

Baldus was well known throughout France for his efforts in photography. One of his greatest assignments was to document the construction of the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
museum. He used wet and dry paper negatives as large as 10x14 inches in size. From these negatives, he made
contact print A contact print is a photographic image produced from Photographic film, film; sometimes from a film negative (photography), negative, and sometimes from a film positive or paper negative. In a darkroom an exposed and developed piece of film or ...
s. To create a larger image, he put contact prints side by side to create a panoramic effect. He was renowned for the sheer size of his pictures, which ranged up to eight feet long for one panorama from around 1855, made from several negatives. Despite the documentary nature of many of his assignments, Baldus was inventive in overcoming the limitations of the
calotype Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low ...
proces
(described here)
He often retouched his negatives to blank out buildings and trees, or to put clouds in white skies; in his composite print of the medieval cloister of St. Trophime, in
Arles Arles ( , , ; ; Classical ) is a coastal city and Communes of France, commune in the South of France, a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône Departments of France, department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Reg ...
(1851), he pieced together fragments of 10 different negatives to capture focus in depth in a panoramic view of the interior space and also render detail in the brightly lit courtyard outside.


Death

He died in 1889 in Arcueil, France.


Notable photographs

File:Palais de l'Industrie - Édouard Baldus.jpg,
Palais de l'Industrie The Palais de l'Industrie (; Palace of Industry) was an exhibition hall located in Paris between the Seine River and the Champs-Élysées, which was erected for the Paris World Fair in 1855. This was the last of several buildings with the sam ...
, . File:Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, east facade by Édouard Baldus c1860s.jpg, Notre-Dame, Paris Image:Imperial Library of the Louvre.jpg, Imperial Library of the Louvre Image:Viaduc de Roquefavour.jpg, Roquefavour Aqueduct Image:Pontdugard.png, Pont du Gard File:Édouard Baldus, Panorama de la Cité, circa 1860.jpg, Panorama of Paris, about 1860


References

*Daniel, Malcolm, ''The Photographs of Édouard Baldus'', with an essay by Barry Bergdoll. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Montreal, Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1994, , . *Lindlein, Peter, ''The Secret of Edouard Baldus Revealed'', Essay, PDF on www.lindlein.com, 2010


External links


The Photographs of Edouard Baldus article on his photographic style Some of Baldus's photographs
— ''with Baldus' photographs''.
''The Photographs of Édouard Baldus: Landscapes and Monuments of France''Édouard Baldus, photographs
Canadian Centre for Architecture
digitized items
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldus, Edouard French landscape photographers 1889 deaths 19th-century French photographers 1813 births