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EDOARD-DENIS BALDUS
French, 1815-1882
St. Ouen at Rouen, ca.
1855
Albumen print or albumenized salted paper print.
17 9/16 x 12 3/4 in. (45 x 32 cm)
Gift of Arthur and Marilyn Penn, Class of 1956, Christopher Elliman, David
Elliman, and Andrea Branch, by exchange. 91.29.2
Though he died penniless, Edouard-Denis Baldus epitomized the successful
photographer. Trained as a painter, he combined the roles of artist, chemist,
and entrepreneur. Born in Westphalia, Baldus began his career in the military.
He turned early to an artistic career and arrived in Paris to study painting
in 1838, shortly before Daguerre's experiments profoundly changed the art
world. He began an intense study of photographic chemistry, and when Fox
Talbot's paper processes were developed, Baldus found his niche. Best known
as a recorder of architecture, Baldus emphasized strong symmetrical images
taken frontally, playing on the rich tonalities inherent in Gothic buildings,
like this image of the Cathedral of St. Ouen in Rouen. Baldus is, perhaps,
best remembered for his commission to record scenes along the path of the
railroad being built from Boulogne to Paris and on the Mediterranean coast.
These photographs were bound into a richly decorated album and presented
to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on the occasion of their visit to Paris
in August 1855. Ernest Lacan, editor-in-chief of La Lumière,
the weekly journal of the first photographic society, said of Baldus's work:
"It had a rare perfection tonal beauty incredible fineness of detail.
M. Baldus knows how to choose his point of view."
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