Hollow Oak Tree, Fontainebleau

1855–57

Not on view

Trained as a painter by the artist Paul Delaroche, Le Gray embraced photography within a decade of the medium’s public announcement, becoming one of its most admired practitioners. In the forest of Fontainebleau, he and painters worked side by side, producing images that earned him praise among his colleagues. His extraordinary understanding of light is particularly evident in his arboreal studies. This forest view transforms a backlit tree into a conduit of the Sublime. Sunlight pierces its branches, causing them to hover on the edge of immateriality.

Artwork Details

Title: Hollow Oak Tree, Fontainebleau
Artist: Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884)
Date: 1855–57
Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions: Image: 12 3/8 × 14 13/16 in. (31.5 × 37.7 cm)
Sheet: 12 3/8 × 14 13/16 in. (31.5 × 37.7 cm)
Mount: 20 3/8 in. × 27 7/16 in. (51.8 × 69.7 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Bequest of Maurice B. Sendak, 2012
Object Number: 2013.159.38
Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

By Gustave Le Gray

In the same medium

From the same time and place

[The Great Wave, Sète], Gustave Le Gray French, Albumen silver print from glass negative — [The Great Wave, Sète]
Gustave Le Gray
1857

Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French — Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century

[Oak Tree and Rocks, Forest of Fontainebleau], Gustave Le Gray French, Salted paper print from paper negative — [Oak Tree and Rocks, Forest of Fontainebleau]
Gustave Le Gray
1849–52

Osage Warrior, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American — Osage Warrior
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1805–7

[Flower Study, Rose of Sharon], Adolphe Braun French, Albumen silver print from glass negative — [Flower Study, Rose of Sharon]
Adolphe Braun
ca. 1854

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