- 33
Eugène Cuvelier 1837-1900
Description
- Eugène Cuvelier
- 'BORNAGE DE BARBIZON'
Provenance
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
Exhibited
Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Eugène Cuvelier oder Die Legende vom Wald, March - May 1997
Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Eugène Cuvelier (1837-1900) Photographe de la Forêt de Fontainebleau, June - August
Literature
Catalogue Note
The title of this photograph, Bornage de Barbizon, indicates that it was taken on the road that runs directly between the village of Barbizon and the Fontainebleau forest. Barbizon was situated on the very western edge of the forest, and was therefore a convenient place for painters and tourists alike to lodge. In his Dictionnaire historique et artistique de la Forêt de Fontainebleau (Fontainebleau: Maurice Bourges, 1903), Felix Herbert lists an established Route du Bornage de Barbizon that would take a visitor through the old-growth forest of Bas-Bréau and south to the Gorges et Platières d'Apremont. The simple wooden structure amidst the clutter of felled trees by the side of the road was very likely used to support a temporary walkway along one of the forest's many paths. Two such structures can be seen supporting a small footbridge along another walking path in Lot 15.
With its depiction of thick stands of tall trees, likely beeches, arching over the rustic pathway, and a glimpse, on the left, of the bramble-covered forest floor, the photograph portrays both the grandeur and the chaos of the natural world. The path, the wooden support, and to a greater extent the cut lumber, are all eveidence of man's impact upon the forest.
Gauss accounts for only one print of this image: the salt print offered here.