Lecture Gustave Le Gray

In 2018, the Rijksmuseum was gifted its first seascape by Gustave Le Gray, a 19th-century French photographer who became famous throughout Europe for his large, atmospheric pictures of coasts and ocean views in the 1850s. Travelling from Normandy to the Mediterranean, Le Gray set up his large camera and mobile darkroom on cliffs and beaches and photographed straight into the sun. His photographs show moody weather formations, sparkling reflections on the water and ships on far horizons. Le Gray’s advanced techniques allowed him to capture impressive clouds and crashing waves with short exposure times, both of which were near impossible with the common photographic materials of the time, which were not equally sensitive to all colours and required relatively long exposure times.

Much has been written on Le Gray and his work during the 170 years since they were taken, but many of his technical methods have remained unexplained until this day. The last pieces on this topic were published by photo historians 25 years ago. The gift of the seascape print to the Rijksmuseum and the generosity of Theo Appeldoorn therefore provided us with a unique opportunity to attempt new, innovative research on Le Gray’s work. In 2019, the Rijksmuseum commissioned photographer Christian Klant, an expert of the historical wet-plate collodion negative process, to study and re-enact the techniques that Gustave Le Gray must have used for producing his famous seascapes in the 1850s.

This is the first time that a practitioner, and not a photo historian, tackled Le Gray’s secrets. Thanks to the support of the Theo Appeldoorn Seascape Fund/Rijksmuseum Fonds we are happy to present the results of this research project and discuss their implications for future study of this important photographer.