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The Breaking Wave

A work made of albumen print, no. 15 from the album "vistas del mar".
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of albumen print, no. 15 from the album "vistas del mar".

Date:

1857

Artist:

Gustave Le Gray
French, 1820–1884

About this artwork

Trained as a painter before taking up photography around 1847, Gustave Le Gray was highly regarded for his composition as well as his technique. His seascapes, which were publicly exhibited in London and Paris in 1857 to great acclaim, displayed his technical mastery: he combined two negatives—one exposed for the sea, the other for the sky—to render a scene otherwise unable to be captured photographically. Moreover, Le Gray managed to arrest a breaking wave in this dramatic vertical image, an accomplishment almost unheard of at a time when exposures required several seconds. This photograph comes from an extremely rare album of Le Gray’s seascapes possibly assembled for a Spanish patron.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Gustave Le Gray

Title

The Breaking Wave

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1857

Medium

Albumen print, No. 15 from the album "Vistas del Mar"

Inscriptions

Signed recto, lower right, on image, in red pencil [?]: "Gustave Le Gray"; blind stamped recto, on album page, lower center: "PHOTOGRAPHIE / GUSTAVE LE GRAY & C / PARIS"; unmarked verso

Dimensions

Image/paper: 41.4 × 33.6 cm (16 5/16 × 13 1/4 in.); Album page: 64.5 × 50.8 cm (25 7/16 × 20 in.)

Credit Line

Hugh Edwards Fund

Reference Number

1971.577.10

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/126478/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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