Gustave LE GRAY (1830-1884)
Harbor Scene, Sète, with the Steamer Saïd

Albumen print, contemporary, from collodion-on-glass negative, May, 1857. Unmounted, 12½ x 15¼ in. (314 x 388 mm). Framed archivally in a carved and ebonized frame by APF.

Following great success with his scenes at the port of Le Havre, Le Gray took advantage of the Toulouse-Sète (then Cette) railroad extension and made several of his finest seascapes and harbor pictures on the Mediterranean in and about Sète in May, 1857. These plates include The Great Wave, Sète and the views of Mount Adge; the present plate, emphasising the contrasts of light and shade and the glassine, rippled water surface, is at the summit of his harbor views.

References: see Janis, The Photography of Gustave Le Gray, ch.V, fig.4; Jacobson, The Lovely Sea-View, fig.3; Aubenas, et. al., Gustave Le Gray, 1820-1884, pl.142; Haworth-Booth and McCauley, The Museum & the Photograph, p.4.

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