Los 4053

Le Gray, Gustave
(1820-1884)Brig on the Water (Brick au Claire de Lune)

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Fotografie des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts (Katalog nur online verfügbar)
Auktionsdatum 4.12.2024

Brig on the Water (Brick au Claire de Lune). 1856. Albumen print. 31,5 x 40,5 cm. Photographer's red signature stamp in lower right, mounted to board, matted and framed under museum glass in wooden frame.

Gustave Le Gray’s first exhibited seascape, Brig on the Water, is a seminal piece within his photographic career and was shown at a private meeting of the Photographic Society of London in November 1856, as well as several other venues that year and the following year. This image is considered one of his major masterpieces. The photograph’s striking composition, featuring a solitary ship against the sea and expansive sky, captivated viewers and critics alike, earning widespread acclaim for its technical mastery in capturing light and atmosphere. It quickly became a sensation across Europe, with 800 prints ordered within two months of its release, as noted in a London printseller’s advertisement in The Times in November 1856. Le Gray's albumen prints, often toned with a gold chloride solution, as the print offered here, display a rich violet-purple hue that has contributed to their enduring beauty. Today, prints of this iconic image are housed in major collections worldwide, including the Musée d’Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the Portland Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. – Some vertical surface scratches in upper right, a few small surface irregularities, more visible in raking light, otherwise a strong, tonal print in very good condition.

Lit.: Sylvie Aubenas. Gustave Le Gray, 1820-1884. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002. ill. pl. 128, p. 108.
Ken Jacobson. The Lovely Sea-View: A Study of the Marine Photographs Published by Gustave Le Gray, 1856-1858. Petches Bridge, 2001. ill. title page, p. 8, and back cover.
Karen Hellman, ed. Real/Ideal: Photography in Mid-Nineteenth-Century France. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016. ill. pl. 118.
Gordon Baldwin (ed.). Looking at Photographs: A Guide to Technical Terms. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum. ill. p. 6.