Road in the Forest

About the Artwork

Eugène Cuvelier was a landscape painter as well as a photographer. During the 1850s and 1860s, he photographed in an number of forests near Paris. He was also associated with the Barbizon painters, a group working in the village of Barbizon that advocated the direct study of nature. This exquisite snow scene exemplifies Cuvelier's distinguished and influential landscape work. The artist took advantage of the inherent softness of his photographic process to create an atmospheric rendering of a winter scene with a curving pathway that draws the viewer into the dense, barely defined background of foliage. Many of the trees Cuvelier recorded disappeared soon after the photographs were taken.

Inscriptions

Written in pencil on recto of mount: "6"; in pencil on verso: "7"

Exhibition history

The Year in Review for 1989. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-April 15, 1990). Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997). Pioneers of Landscape Photography from the Museum's Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 12, 2000-January 3, 2001). Drawn with Light: Pioneering French Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 26-June 16, 2005). France at the Dawn of Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 4, 2009-January 24, 2010).

Quick Overview

Artist: Eugène Cuvelier (French, 1837–1900)
Date: 1860–1863
Medium: salted paper print from waxed paper negative
Dimensions: Image: 25.8 x 19.8 cm (10 3/16 x 7 13/16 in.); Matted: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)
Type: Photograph
Classification: Photograph
Department: Photography
Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession no.: 1989.29

More by Eugène Cuvelier in museum collections

Untitled
Eugène Cuvelier
c. 1860 · Photograph
Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00006981
Farmyard
Eugène Cuvelier
1862 · Photograph
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of ArtAT-00013163
[Fontainebleau Forest]
Eugène Cuvelier
ca. 1860 · Photograph
Public collection via the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAT-00025004
[Fontainebleau Forest]
Eugène Cuvelier
early 1860s · Photograph
Public collection via the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAT-00025055

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.