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cmaphotography.bsky.social
CMA: Photography
@cmaphotography.bsky.social
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Sharing public domain works from the Photography department of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Automated thanks to @andreitr.bsky.social and @botfrens.bsky.social
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cmaphotography.bsky.social
Versailles, Chaste Venus https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.113
During the first quarter of the 20th century, Eugène Atget photographed the French urban experience. Periodically, from 1901 to 1926, Atget was particularly attracted to the grounds and gardens at the palace of Versailles, photographing its walks, fountains, and statues during different seasons. An eerie silence and mysteriousness frequently suffuses his images, as it does in this haunting photograph of Antoine Coysevox's bronze sculpture of Venus, positioned on a raised plinth facing the palace's garden facade. With the placement of his camera, Atget brought a carefully ordered harmony to the composition through the alignment of various architectural and sculptural elements.
December 10, 2025 at 10:51 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Yosemite Falls https://clevelandart.org/art/1974.47
Yosemite Falls
December 10, 2025 at 8:56 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Notre Dame, Paris https://clevelandart.org/art/1991.35
This extraordinary photograph clearly demonstrates Baldus’s genius both as an architectural photographer and as a printer. Centrally placed and filling the entire composition, this great architectural monument is clearly depicted, seemingly removed from time, as there are no interfering elements such as figures or clouds to distract from the building’s majesty. This large, ambitious view captures, almost without rival, the physical and symbolic essence of Notre-Dame. Instead of the traditional frontal view, Baldus photographed the building at an oblique angle in order to articulate the volume of the structure, and he was most conscious of the negative space created by the cathedral’s contour against the unmodulated sky. His salt prints of architectural views, with their breathtaking warm gray tones, are among the most striking achievements of 19th-century photography.
December 9, 2025 at 7:51 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Temple at Naveshera, Kashmir, India https://clevelandart.org/art/1994.186
One of the most important British expeditionary photographers, Samuel Bourne was propelled by his great desire to travel to lovely, remote locations and to record images of what he considered picturesque. From 1863 to 1869, he worked widely in India, making three major expeditions to the Himalayas. This exquisite photograph of the decaying Temple of Naveshera was taken on his nine-month, second journey to this stunning, mountainous terrain. He balanced the ordered, constructed architectural forms with glimpses of the majestic natural landscape. Bourne included a few people in the scene to add a sense of scale, but they are incidental to the subject matter and symbolism of the photograph, which stresses the dominance of natural forces.
December 9, 2025 at 4:46 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Cleveland https://clevelandart.org/art/1991.38
Louis-Auguste Bisson's <em>Cleveland</em> is an outstanding example of the artistry of the French daguerreotype, aided by recent technical advances at the time. Between 1839 and 1841, for example, exposure times had been reduced from 15 minutes to one or two minutes. This descriptive portrait of the famous dark bay English stallion named Cleveland is a rare example of the small group of daguerreotypes of horses made by Bisson, who launched the 19th-century tradition of horse portrait photography. The profile pose allowed the photographer to document the anatomical details of the horse, its physiognomy, and breeding. This unusual outdoor picture is a testament to Bisson's technical ability, the speed of the exposure, and the horse's willingness to stand still.
December 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Untitled https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.189
Untitled
December 9, 2025 at 10:27 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Untitled (Landscape near Watsonville, California) https://clevelandart.org/art/1994.187
Untitled (Landscape near Watsonville, California)
December 9, 2025 at 9:46 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Eaux-Chaudes, Pyrenees (verso) https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.180.b
Eaux-Chaudes, Pyrenees (verso)
December 8, 2025 at 7:34 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Untitled (Winter Landscape) https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.28
In the decades around the turn of the 20th century, Post frequently exhibited his Pictorial photographs in the United States, Canada, and Europe. This well-regarded amateur photographer was especially known for his winter scenes, often taken in the vicinity of his home in Fryeburg, Maine. Cleverly positioned, the photographer used two mounds of earth in the foreground to frame a complex landscape of open fields populated by stands of trees and a weaving line of fences leading the eye to the distant mountain range. Post hoped his ability to compose and his mastery of powerful visual effects would earn him recognition as a master of landscape photography.
December 8, 2025 at 5:11 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Queen of the May https://clevelandart.org/art/1984.166
A major figure in the development of British photography, Cameron elevated the portrait to new artistic heights. She never opened a commercial studio or accepted commissions, but she was one of the first photographers to sell her photographs through a fine art gallery. Friends, neighbors, family, and servants were cajoled into modeling for portraits as themselves and as allegorical figures from history, religion, mythology, and literature. Little is known about Emily Peacock, who posed here as the protagonist in <em>The May Queen </em>by Britain’s poet laureate Alfred Tennyson<em>. </em>Typically crowned with flowers, the May Queen is selected as part of the celebrations on May 1, a traditional spring holiday in many cultures in the Northern Hemisphere.
December 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Study after Nature https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.163
In the early 1850s, despite protests from moralists, photographs of nudes (known as académies) were discreetly produced under the guise of "artist's studies." Among those most skilled at making such studies was Julien Vallou de Villeneuve. A successful painter and lithographer during the 1820s and 1830s before turning to photography in the early 1840s, he created a new repertoire of poses for artists to use as compositional aids. Among his clients was the French realist painter Gustave Courbet (1819–1877).
December 8, 2025 at 11:26 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
An Effect of the Sun, Normandy https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.54
Exploring the dramatic effects of sunlight, clouds, and water, Gustave Le Gray gained immediate recognition for his landmark photographs of the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel taken between 1856 and 1858. At this time photographic emulsions were not equally sensitive to all colors of the spectrum, making it impossible to achieve a proper exposure for both sea and sky in a single image. Thus, for may of his seascapes Le Gray printed two negatives on a single sheet of paper, a technique called combination printing. One negative was taken of the water and the other of the sky. The overlap often apparent in such multiple negative images is not visible in this skillfully executed print.
December 8, 2025 at 9:39 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Rebel Works in front of Atlanta, Georgia, No. 5 https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.164
Rebel Works in front of Atlanta, Georgia, No. 5
December 7, 2025 at 6:19 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Camera Work: Ely Cathedral: Across Nave and Octagon https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.199.4.b
Camera Work: Ely Cathedral: Across Nave and Octagon
December 7, 2025 at 4:36 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Camera Work: Handyside Ritchie and Wm. Henning https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.199.37.c
Camera Work: Handyside Ritchie and Wm. Henning
December 7, 2025 at 1:49 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Rue de la Ferronnerie https://clevelandart.org/art/1984.24
This Marville photograph is from his series on the old sections of Paris taken during the 1860s before Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann cut great boulevards through them. Marville achieved documentary perfection with precise rendering of materials, exact perspective, interesting forms, and luminous shadows. He preferred working on overcast, rainy days when diffused light and glistening cobblestones yielded maximum tonal range and detail. This beautiful photograph brings a quiet dignity to the old street.
December 7, 2025 at 11:19 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Camera Work: Beyond https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.199.11.e
Camera Work: Beyond
December 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
A Priory, Lyminge https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.231
A Priory, Lyminge
December 6, 2025 at 7:42 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Camera Work: The Bird-Cage https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.199.28.b
Camera Work: The Bird-Cage
December 6, 2025 at 4:45 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Islands in Limón Bay https://clevelandart.org/art/1991.273
Islands in Limón Bay
December 6, 2025 at 1:05 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Untitled https://clevelandart.org/art/1991.151
Untitled
December 6, 2025 at 11:29 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Large Speos - View taken from the Sand Slope (Temple of Ramesses II), Abu Simbel https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.234
While other images of Abu Simbel by Teynard, Maxime Du Camp, and Antonio Beato emphasize the massive scale of the two temples carved into the rocks, this view by Teynard sets the colossal sculptures into the context of the large cliffs and vast expanses of desert. Like the temple at Philae,the temple complex at Abu Simbel was relocated in 1968 to prevent its submersion beneath the lake formed by the Aswan High Dam. This view no longer exists.
December 6, 2025 at 8:56 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Man on a Horse https://clevelandart.org/art/1996.336
During 1860-61, Nadar tried his hand at equestrian photography, probably while waiting for the completion of his new, elaborate studio on the Boulevard des Capuchins. In this rare example of the theme, Nadar carefully positioned and lit his subject-an unidentified, elegantly dressed gentleman on horseback-in front of a painted backdrop decorated with a walled garden scene. The two remained motionless just long enough for the wet collodion negative to render a sharply defined image.
December 5, 2025 at 6:25 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
A Convict's Home https://clevelandart.org/art/1974.48
A Convict's Home
December 5, 2025 at 4:46 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Julia Jackson Duckworth (1846-1895) https://clevelandart.org/art/1984.165
One of the renowned beauties of Victorian England, Jackson is seen in the two photographs to the left the year she married barrister Herbert Duckworth at age 21. He died three years later, leaving her with two children and a third on the way. She is seen here at age 28, a Victorian tragic heroine haunted by grief. Pale and hollow-eyed, although still lovely, she stands before a wall of ivy, an evergreen plant that signified eternity and fidelity. Four years later, Duckworth married biographer Sir Leslie Stephen with whom she had four children, including author Virginia Woolf and painter Vanessa Bell. Julia Jackson Duckworth Stephen died of rheumatic fever in 1895 at age 49.
December 5, 2025 at 12:52 PM