Lyon
ca. 1861
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative?
Dimensions
Image: 43.2 x 31.1 cm (17 x 12 1/4 in.) Mount: 46 x 60.5 cm (18 1/8 x 23 13/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.364.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Édouard Baldus's *Lyon* (ca. 1861) captures the bustling riverside life of Lyon, France, one of Europe's most vibrant industrial cities in the-19th century. albumen silver print from glass negative showcases bridges arch over the Rhône or Sa River, dotted with boats and framed by architecture. At 432 x 31.1, the image's scale on its mount reflectsus's ambition to elevate photography to fine art,ing paintings in detail and. Baldus, a French photographer, worked under imperial commissions from Napoleon III to document France's architectural heritage. His crisp, large-format views preserved vani...
About the Artist
Edouard Baldus · 1813–1889
Édouard-Denis Baldus (1813–1889), born in Grünebach, Prussia, moved to Paris in 1838 at age twenty-five to study painting outside the École des Beaux-Arts and atelier system. Trained initially as a painter, draughtsman, and lithographer, he exhibited at the Paris Salons from 1841 to 1851 without notable recognition. Around 1849, Baldus pivoted to photography, embracing William Henry Fox Talbot's p...