Édouard Baldus
Cathédrale d'Amiens, Portail principal

ArtistFrench, born Prussia, 1813–1889
CultureFrench
Titles
  • Cathédrale d'Amiens, Portail principal
Date1855
PlaceAmiens, France
MediumSalted paper print from paper negative
DimensionsImage: 17 3/8 × 13 3/8 in. (44.2 × 34 cm)
Sheet: 17 3/8 × 13 3/8 in. (44.2 × 34 cm)
Mount: 24 × 17 15/16 in. (61 × 45.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Manfred Heiting, The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2004.251
Current Location
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building
Gallery 208
Exposé

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Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionIn France, the mid-19th century was a time of renewed interest in the nation’s medieval past—in literature (Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame was published in 1831), music, and especially architecture. It was also a time when artists of the first rank took up the new and still handcrafted medium of photography and made pictures of great ambition and beauty for an aristocratic clientele. Baldus was one of five photographers commissioned by the French government in 1851 to carry out photographic surveys of the nation’s architectural patrimony to aid in preservation and restoration decisions. In the years that followed, he established himself as the country’s preeminent architectural photographer, continuing to sell views of historic monuments to the government, captains of industry, and collectors of the new art. At the Gothic cathedral at Amiens, 75 miles north of Paris, he photographed the elaborately carved main portal emerging from the shadows and the restorer’s scaffolding. Fulfilling his dual goals of documentation and artistry, Baldus clearly recorded the portal’s treasure trove of early 13th-century sculpture even as he bathed the whole in an atmosphere of 19th-century Romanticism.
ProvenanceBought by Manfred Heiting from Galerie Michèle Chomette, Paris, on 1/30/1988.
Exhibition History"The Photographs of Edouard Baldus", Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto, lower left corner of image: "Amiens"
Center bottom of image: "No 42"
Marked in ink, lower right corner of mount: "Cathedrale d'Amiens. Portail principal"
Lower left corner of mount: "X"
Partial raised stamp, lower right corner of mount
Marked in pencil, verso, upper left corner: " [illegible mark, circled] "
Recto, lower right: "E. Baldus"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Cathédrale d’Amiens, portail principal (Amiens Cathedral, Central Portal)
Édouard Baldus
1855
Salted paper print from paper negative
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Édouard Baldus
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Salted paper print from a glass plate negative
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Édouard Baldus
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Salted paper print from paper negative
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Charles Marville
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Salted paper print from paper negative
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Édouard Baldus
c. 1855
Salted paper print from glass negative
2004.253
Pavilion Denon, Louvre
Édouard Baldus
1855–1856
Salted paper print from glass negative
2004.249
Tour Magne à Nimes
Édouard Baldus
1853
Salted paper print from glass negative
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Gare de Boulogne, Côté de Paris
Édouard Baldus
1855, printed later
Salted paper print from glass negative
2004.239
Pavillon Turgot, au Louvre
Édouard Baldus
1856
Salted paper print from glass negative
2004.234
Dome des Invalides
Édouard Baldus
c. 1855
Salted paper print from glass negative
2004.255
Chateau de Polignac
Édouard Baldus
1854
Salted paper print from glass negative
2004.245
Rocher de St Michel de Puy
Édouard Baldus
1854
Salted paper print from glass negative
2004.243