Eugène Cuvelier 1837-1900

The collection of John Chandler Bancroft, Middletown, Rhode Island

Gustave J. S. White Co., Auctioneers, Newport, Rhode Island, 1989

Acquired from the above by a New England antiques dealer

To the present owners, 1989

Another print of this image:

Ulrike Gauss, Henning Weidemann, and Daniel Challe, Eugène Cuvelier (Stuttgart, 1996, in conjunction with the exhibition), no. 340

This is one of two photographs in the collection bearing the title Pres la Reine Blanche --literally, Near the White Queen.  La Reine Blanche was a name applied to a succession of trees in the Bas-Bréu section of Fontainebleau, as well as to an oak grove that was ultimately felled by high winds in 1893 (see Lot 2).  The level of detail in the present photograph, and the clarity of the sky, strongly suggests that this print was made from a glass negative, as opposed to a paper negative.  While paper negatives, properly handled, were capable of conveying a sufficient level of detail as well as imparting atmospheric effects to an image, glass negatives delivered a far greater amount of minute visual information.  See Lots 15, 17, and 25 for more information on Cuvelier's use of glass negatives.  A fuller discussion of Cuvelier's selective use of glass and paper negatives can be found in Daniel Challe's essay 'Eugène Cuvelier, photographe en la fôret de Fontainebleau' in Les Photographes de Barbizon: La Fôret de Fontainebleau (Bibliothèque Nationale, 1991, p. 22).

Gauss does not list this salt print her census, but accounts for one albumen print of this image.