Untitled (Scene of Fontainebleau)

About the Artwork

Trained as a painter, Giroux was an active amateur photographer during the 1850s. His father manufactured equipment for Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, the inventor of the first photographic process, the daguerreotype. In this early example of his appealing landscape work, Giroux focused on a scene in the Forest of Fontainbleau, a favorite locale for 19th-century French artists. Inspired by the compositions of paintings and lithographs, he carefully framed an engaging, asymmetrical arrangement of rocks, trees, and a primitive pathway. This brilliantly lit wooded environment projects a feeling of peace and harmony, order and balance.

Inscriptions

Written in pencil on recto: "55"; [a second mark is illegible]

Provenance

?-1996: (Robert Hershkowitz, Ltd., Sussex, United Kingdom), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH March 4, 1996-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

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). From Corot to Monet: Painters & Photographers in the Forest Fontainebleau. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (March 2-June 8, 2008).

Quick Overview

Artist: André Giroux (French, 1801–1879)
Date: c. 1853
Medium: salted paper print from waxed paper negative
Dimensions: Image: 21.3 x 27.5 cm (8 3/8 x 10 13/16 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 66 cm (22 x 26 in.)
Type: Photograph
Classification: Photograph
Department: Photography
Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
Accession no.: 1996.9

More by André Giroux in museum collections

[Rustic Building with Man under Trellis]
André Giroux
ca. 1853 · Photograph
Public collection via the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAT-00025977

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