Scanned from a slide by Adam Pape. Color corrected by Pat Cagney.

Brig on the Water

Artist Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820-1882)

CultureFrench

Date1856

MediumAlbumen print from collodion negative

DimensionsOverall, Image: 11 1/4 × 16 in. (28.6 × 40.6 cm)
Overall, Frame: 27 × 31 in. (68.6 × 78.7 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase, and partial gift of Mr. and Mrs. Calvin H. Childress, Mr. and Mrs. Chris A. Crumley, Mrs. Alice R. Frank, Dr. and Mrs. George M. Kemp, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lester, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold B. McKinnon, Dr. Patricia L. Raymond, P. L. Wilds, Landmark Communications Art Trust, Art Purchase Fund, and an Anonymous Donor

Object number94.33

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 228

DescriptionThis albumen print from a wet collodion negative is on its original mount.

Label TextGustave Le Gray French, 1820–1882 Brig on the Water, 1856 Albumen print from collodion negative After training as a painter, Gustave Le Gray took up photography in 1847. He became a champion of paper negatives and a key figure in the development of artistic photography. For Brig on the Water, however, he turned to the much faster collodion-on-glass negative process to seize moving waves and dramatic clouds along the Normandy coast. Touted as a miraculous exposure of both sky and land masses when it was exhibited in London in 1856, the print was purchased by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband. Purchase, partial gift of Mr. and Mrs. Calvin H. Childress, Mr. and Mrs. Chris A. Crumley, Mrs. Alice R. Frank, Dr. and Mrs. George M. Kemp, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lester, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold B. McKinnon, Dr. Patricia L. Raymond, P. L. Wilds, Landmark Communications Art Trust, Art Purchase Fund, and an Anonymous Donor 94.33 Exhibition History"New Frames of Reference: Early French Photographers at Home and Abroad," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, gallery 228, September 5, 2024 - February 16, 2025. "Recent Acquisitions", The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, December 16, 1994 - March 5, 1995. (This object was placed in the small photography gallery on December 16, but the exhibition opened on December 10, 1994.) "Photography Speaks II: 70 Photographers on Their Art from The Chrysler Museum Collection," The Chrysler Museum of Art, November 11, 1995 - March 31, 1996 "Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," October 25, 1996 - February 16, 1997 "Silver Images: The Photography Collection at 25," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., November 5, 2003 - August 2004. "Photographic Histories," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, May 10 - August 17, 2014.Published ReferencesEugenia Janis. _The Photography of Gustave Le Gray_. Chicago and NY: Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, reproduced as the frontispiece. Brooks Johnson. _Photography Speaks II_. Norfolk, VA: Aperture/The Chrysler Museum of Art, 1995, 16-17. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 103, fig. 123. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1