Gustave Le Gray

Title: "Grande Vague, Sète" and "Beech Tree Fontainebleau"
Artist: Gustave Le Gray
Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative; 33.7 x 41.4 cm (13 1/4 x 16 5/16 in.), andAlbumen silver print 12 7/16 x 16 1/4 in. 84.XM.637.22
Year: 1857and 1956
 
Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?
 
Gustave Le Gray has been called "The most important French photographer of the 19th century" because of his technical innovations in the still new medium of photography, his role as the teacher of other noted photographers, and the extraordinary imagination he brought to picture making". He was also the official photographer of Napoleon III. In October 1999, a Le Gray print "Beech Tree, Fontainebleau" sold for £419,500, which was a world record for most expensive single photograph ever sold at auction, to an anonymous buyer. Later that day at the same auction, however, an albumen print of "Grande Vague, Sète" ("The Great Wave, Sète") also by Le Gray was sold for a new world record price of  $840,370 to "the same anonymous buyer" who was later revealed to be Sheik Saud Al-Thani of Qatar. The record stood until May 2003.
 
Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).
 
Wow. I've seen some of his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan New York but I didn't know exactly who he was at the time. After finding out who he is I am very impressed by his artwork and amused by the life he lived. He did a lot within his 54 years on earth, a lot of traveling, socialized with other important people; he just seems so free spirited.
 
 
Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Rachel Desalegne