Édouard Baldus
Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée

ArtistFrench, born Prussia, 1813–1889
CultureFrench
Titles
  • Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée
Date1853–1864, assembled 1860s
Place depictedFrance
MediumAlbum of 69 albumen silver prints from glass or paper negatives
DimensionsSheet (Each): 18 1/8 × 23 13/16 in. (46 × 60.5 cm)
Overall (Book): 18 1/2 × 25 3/16 × 2 in. (47 × 64 × 5.1 cm)
Portfolio case: 20 1/16 × 26 1/2 × 2 13/16 in. (51 × 67.3 × 7.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Michael S. Sachs
Object number2020.172.1-.69
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

Commissioned to produce an album for the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) railroad company, Édouard Baldus drew on a decade of work to present the products of Second Empire technology and engineering as the natural descendants of France’s architectural past. Stations, tunnels, tracks, and viaducts intermingled with Roman aqueducts and medieval cloisters. At a time when some argued that the railroad interrupted the landscape, erased local customs, and doomed the small towns that it bypassed, this album, with its blend of historic architecture, modern engineering, and natural landscape, celebrated the railroad as a powerful vehicle of political, economic, and cultural unification.


Provenance[Anaf Auction, Lyon, 1999]; purchased by Michael S. Sachs, Westport, Connecticut; given to MFAH, 2020.
Exhibition HistoryThis copy of the PLM album has not been exhibited. Other copies, as well as individual images that figure in the album, have been widely shown in exhibitions of nineteenth-century photography, surveys of the history of the medium, and shows exploring the relationship of photography and painting in 19th-century France.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Titles printed on each mount, bottom left, below print. Facsimile signature stamp on most mounts, bottom right below print. Some prints titled, numbered, or signed in the negative. Specific inscription details are noted in the individual print records.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Chemin de fer du Nord – Ligne de Paris à Boulogne – Vues photographiques
Édouard Baldus
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Inauguration du boulevard Prince-Eugène, place de la Nation à Paris. Fête du 7 décembre 1862.
Édouard Hermagis
December 7, 1862
Albumen silver print from glass negative, collodion emulsion transferred from glass to paper, modern salted paper print
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Adolphe Terris
1864
Album of albumen silver prints from glass negatives
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Bateaux à marée basse, Boulogne
Édouard Baldus
c.1860
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2004.256
Maison Carrée à Nimes
Édouard Baldus
1853, printed c. 1862
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2004.248
1860s–1870s
Album of albumen silver prints from glass negatives, with applied color
2021.658
The Taber Photographic Album of Principal Business Houses, Residences and Persons
Isaiah West Taber
1880
Album of albumen silver prints from glass negatives
2021.184.1-.108
Mrs. Cameron’s Photographs from the Life
Julia Margaret Cameron
1864–1869, assembled 1869
Album of albumen silver prints from glass negatives
2021.282.1-.75
Die Gebärdensprache dargestellt für Schauspieler sowie für Maler und Bildhauer
Nicola Tonger
published 1886
Album of albumen silver prints from glass negatives
2019.233.1-.25
Photographs of Celebrated British Shorthorns
Falconer Balston Larkworthy
1879
Album of albumen silver prints from glass negatives
91.463.1-.108
[Album of Cabinet Cards]
late 19th century
Album of albumen silver prints from glass negatives
2019.240
Lyon. Gare de Perrache.
Édouard Baldus
c. 1861
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2020.172.3