While Charles Marville is best known for his photographs of the transformation of Paris by Baron Haussmann during the 1860s, he established his reputation during the 1850s with views of cathedrals, chateaux, and other historic architecture in France and Germany. Unlike the highly detailed, crystal clear later views of Paris made with glass negatives and printed on albumen paper, his early photographs are salted paper prints from paper negatives and exhibit a fibrous texture that gives them a softer feel, thought by many to be more desirable, more closely allied with the traditional graphic arts.