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Chartres Cathedral: Porch of the South Transept

Chartres Cathedral: Porch of the South Transept

(French, 1820–1880)
about 1854
Medium/TechniquePhotograph, salt print
DimensionsImage: 51.8 x 70.8 cm (20 3/8 x 27 7/8 in.)
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds donated by Charles W. Millard III and Gift of Jessie H. Wilkinson— Jessie H. Wilkinson Fund, Francis Welch Fund, Abbott Lawrence Fund, and Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow Fund
Accession number2013.1813
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPhotographs
Description
The majestic Gothic cathedral at Chartres has long been a source of French national pride. In 1854 Nègre made a series of views of the edifice, including this impressive example. Not only is the photograph particularly large for its day, measuring 20½ x 28 inches, but the artist’s mastery of the early photographic process is apparent in the print’s expressive beauty. The image was so important to Nègre that he also crafted one of his tour-de-force heliogravure engravings from it a few years later. 
Provenance2013, Serge Plantureux, 4 Galerie Vivienne, 75002 Paris; November 2013, sold to Alex Novak of Vintage Works, Ltd., 258 Inverness Circle, Chalfont, PA 18914-3918; December 2013, sold to MFA (accession date December 18, 2013).