Brig upon the Water

ca. 1856

Gustave Le Gray French, 1820 - 1882

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

“Brig upon the Water” created a sensation when it was first exhibited at the Photographic Society of London in December 1856, because it was reported to have been printed from one negative. Such an achievement was considered extraordinary, because the light sensitivity of the materials used was very uneven and typically yielded either well-defined scenes with completely washed-out skies or very dark, unreadable scenes with well-developed skies. To fuse the sky with the scene the photographer usually either in-painted clouds by hand or printed twice, using one negative for the sky and another for the scene. Perhaps Le Gray succeeded with this seascape because he kept the composition simple. Here the exposure time for the sky and water was equal, and the brig, while dark indeed, appears as an appealing silhouette.

Title Brig upon the Water

Artwork Date ca. 1856

Artist Gustave Le Gray

Life Dates 1820 - 1882

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. French

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Albumen print

Dimensions Image: 12 3/8 × 15 7/8 inches (31.4 × 40.3 cm) Sheet: 15 3/4 × 20 1/2 inches (40 × 52.1 cm) Framed: 22 11/16 × 28 11/16 × 1 1/2 inches (57.6 × 72.9 × 3.8 cm)

Classification Photographs

Department Prints, Drawings & Photographs

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Henry E. and Consuelo S. Wenger Foundation Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. F78.41

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

Daniel Wolf Gallery (New York, New York, USA)

1978-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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Published References

Photographs from Detroit Collections. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1983, p.8, fig. 4 (ill.).

Ramstedt, N. "The Photographs of Gustave Le Gray." Unpublished dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1977, no. 65, p. 270 (ill.).

Ramstedt, Nils. "An Album of Seascapes by Gustave Le Gray." History of Photography 4, no. 2 (April 1980): 121-137, p. 129 (ill.).

"Special Photography Issue." Printable News (September 1979): 2 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Gustave Le Gray, Brig upon the Water, ca. 1856, albumen print. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Henry E. and Consuelo S. Wenger Foundation Fund, F78.41.