Dolmen, Cap del Puetch, Ariège, France

About the Artwork

A British-born photographer, Taylor lived in Marseille and became a member of the Société Française de Photographie in 1860. Taking photographs in city parks and the surrounding countryside, as well as in Ariège and Seine-et-Oise, he often worked with the establishment G. Arosa et Cie in Saint-Cloud to produce his ink-based prints made from photographs according to the publisher’s unique process. This print is likely made from a shellac base, for Taylor wrote several articles for British and American photographic journals on a shellac printing process in 1866 and 1867. After printing, the images would be mounted onto a heavy card stock and sold to be collected in albums. Here, the subject, a dolmen, or Neolithic tomb, reflects 19th-century interest in distant history and early monuments.

Inscriptions

none

Exhibition history

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: Arthur A. Taylor (French, active 1850–d. 1873)
Date: c. 1865–69
Medium: G. Arosa et Cie process print from waxed paper negative
Dimensions: Image: 33.1 x 24.7 cm (13 1/16 x 9 3/4 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 55.9 cm (18 x 22 in.)
Type: Photograph
Classification: Photograph
Department: Photography
Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
Accession no.: 1995.237

Provenance

Marc Pagneux, Paris

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