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

Road through the Forest of Fontainebleau

Artist Eugène Cuvelier (French, 1837-1900)

CultureFrench

Dateca. 1862-63

MediumAlbumen print from paper negative

DimensionsOverall, Frame: 27 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 2 in. (69.9 x 85.1 x 5.1 cm)
Overall, Image: 10 × 13 3/8 in. (25.4 × 34 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase, Horace W. Goldsmith and Art Purchase Funds

Object number90.328

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 228

DescriptionThis is an albumen print photograph from a paper negative.

Label TextEugène Cuvelier French, 1837–1900 Road through the Forest of Fontainebleau, ca. 1862–63 Albumen print from paper negative Eugène Cuvelier’s father, Adalbert, was part of a group of artists who experimented with adapting photographic processes to landscape studies. Through Camille Corot, the Cuvelier family began spending summers in the rural village of Barbizon, adjacent to Fontainebleau Forest. Their reverence for nature was shared by painter Théodore Rousseau, who in 1852 made an impassioned plea to Napoléon III to save the forest. In 1861, the emperor set aside an “artistic section”of woods as a nature preserve, an act that Cuvelier commemorated in an exhibition of his Fontainebleau prints, such as this one, in 1863. Purchase, Horace W. Goldsmith and Art Purchase Funds 90.328 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. "A History of Photography: 15 Years of Photography at the Chrysler Museum," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA; September 11, 1993-March 6, 1994. "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. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008.