Henri Le Secq (French, 1818-1882)

Le chêne dénudé, 1870s, waxed paper negative 1850s

Photolithograph

51.2 X 37.8 cm

This grand tree trunk, filling the frame is one of the most dynamic of Le Secq's compositions in the forest of Fountainebleau.

It's likely this example was printed using the "encre grasse" method of Thiel Ainé et Cie, a firm that developed a photolithographic technique and collaborated several times with Le Secq, each time using his old paper negatives from the early 1850s. Most of the known Le Secq photolithographs are of architecture. There are very few of Fontainebleau. This print is one of the only examples to have appeared on the market. The other print is in the Charles Millard Collection at the MFA Boston.

Henri Le Secq (French, 1818-1882)
Façade d'une ferme, 1851
Salt print from a waxed paper negative
24.7 x 34.1 cm
Signed in the negative. Inscribed "X" lightly in pencil on verso.

The textures of the thatch roof, rough composite walls, and earthen foreground in this image are evocatively rendered by Le Secq's use of the waxed paper process which he learned from Gustave Le Gray, a fellow painter in the studio of Paul Delaroche. Le Gray's process was convenient for producing landscapes since the paper could be prepared in advance and used dry in the camera. The waxed paper produced intense black tones, imparting a painterly quality to subjects recorded from nature, a quality enhanced by Le Secq's long exposures.

Henri Le Secq (French, 1818-1882)
Astronomical clock, Chartres Cathedral, 1852
Coated salt print from a paper negative
35.0 x 24.4 cm mounted on 59.5 x 46.2 cm card
Signed and titled "h. Le Secq. (Chartres.)" in the negative

Attributed to Henri Le Secq (French, 1818-1882)
"Église Métropolitaine de Notre-Dame XIIe Siècle", circa 1852
Blanquart-Evrard process salt print from a paper negative
22.4 x 31.9 cm mounted on 39.0 x 50.0 cm paper
Title with "Paris Photographique / Blanquart Evrard, Editeur / Imprimerie Photographique Blanquart Evrard á Lille" printed on mount

At the eastern end of the Ile de la Cite is the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, perhaps the most famous of the French Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Built on the ruins of two earlier churches, themselves preceded by a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter. Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris, conceived the idea of converting the ruins of the two earlier basilicas into a single building around 1160; the foundation stone was laid by Pope Alexander III in 1163. Victor Hugo's 1831 Gothic novel The Huncback of Notre Dame drew attention to the cathedral, influencing Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, the architect who began an elaborate restoration of the cathedral in 1843.
This apse-side view of Notre-Dame may have inspired Charles Meryon's classic 1854 etching and dry point.

Henri Le Secq (French, 1818-1882)
Portail méridionale de l'Église Notre-Dame de Paris, circa 1852
Blanquart-Evrard process salt print from a waxed paper negative
32.9 x 23.7 cm mounted on 55.5 x 38.5 cm paper
"H. Le Secq N.D. de Paris" signed in the negative

Henri Lesecq was a painter, having trained in the atelier of Paul Delaroche. He regularly exhibited in the Paris salons until 1869. He learned the paper negative process from Gustave LeGray and went on to master the art of photography, excelling in landscape and architectural subjects.  In 1851 he was appointed to the Commission des Monuments Historiques. Here LeSecq presents the grand, ornate southern portal of Notre-Dame partially under construction.

Henri Le Secq (French, 1818-1882)
South porch, left portal, left jamb with saints, Chartres Cathedral, 1852
Coated salt print from a paper negative
48.6 x 37.2 cm mounted on 59.8 x 46.1 cm card
Signed and titled "h. Le Secq. / Chartres." in the negative

Another print from the same negative is illustrated in Eugenia Parry Janis and Josianne Sartre, Henri Le Secq: Photographe de 1850 a 1860. Catalogue Raisonné de la Collection de la Bibliothèque des Arts Decoratifs (Paris 1986), cat. no. 281

Henri Le Secq (French, 1818-1882)
Right portal, left jamb with Old Testament figures, Chartres Cathedral, 1852
Coated salt print from a waxed paper negative
46.5 x 35.2 cm mounted on 59.5 x 46.2 cm card
Signed and titled "h. Le Secq. / Chartres." in the negative

The Cathedral of Notre Dame at Chartres is one of the finest examples of French High Gothic and a milestone in the development of Western architecture. In mid-19th century France, Gothic art was a source of national pride. At that time, the French government embarked upon a systematic investigation and restoration of the nation's historic monuments. In 1851 the Commission des Monuments Historiques appointed Henri Le Secq as one of five photographers to document French architecture for the Missions heliographiques. The Commission was so pleased with Le Secq's photographs "reconstruct[ing] stone by stone the cathedrals of Strasbourg and Reims" that they commissioned him to work on Notre Dame of Chartres the following year. The more than forty views that Le Secq produced at Chartres in 1852 constituted a most accurate and poignant record, almost a visual translation of Victor Hugo's description of  a cathedral as a book, an encyclopedia in stone. These photographs express Le Secq's personal passion for architecture and medieval art, permeated by the sensitivity of an archaeologist and resonant with the Romantic fascination for the ruin and the fragment.