Henri Le Secq (French, 1818-1882)
South porch, right portal, right jamb with Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Jerome, and Saint Gregory the Great, Chartres Cathedral, 1852
Coated salt print from a paper negative
46.4 x 37.3 cm mounted on 59.3 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. 280

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

Unknown Photographer
Market scenes, 1850s
Two salt prints from glass negatives
each 20.7 x 16.4 cm, trimmed oval, mounted

Louis-Auguste & Auguste-Rosalie Bisson (Bisson Frères) (French, 1814-1876 & 1826-1900)
Royal Portal with Old Testament figures, Chartres Cathedral, 1857
Coated salt print from a glass negative
45.7 x 36.5 cm mounted on 59.7 x 46.1 cm paper
Black "Bisson frères" signature stamp

Provenance
Private French collection

Literature
Les Frères Bisson photographes, De flèche en cime 1840-1870 (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris / Museum Folkwang, Essen, 1999) cat. 72, p. 45

Charles Marville (French, 1813-1879)
Cathédrale de Chartres, portail septentrional, circa 1853-1854
Blanquart-Évrard process salt print from a paper negative
35.2 x 25.3 cm on 55.4 x 38.6 cm paper

Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Cathédrale de Chartres - Côté Occidental, Porte Latérale de droite XIIe siècle, Before 1867
Photogravure
59.8 x 45.1 cm image

Louis-Auguste & Auguste-Rosalie BIisson (Bisson Frères) (French, 1814-1876 & 1826-1900)
Royal Portal with Old Testament figures, Chartres Cathedral, 1857
Coated salt print from a glass negative
45.7 x 36.5 cm mounted on 59.7 x 46.1 cm paper
Black "Bisson frères" signature stamp

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. 

Henri Le Secq (French, 1818-1882)
Angel with sundial, Chartres Cathedral, 1852
Coated salt print from a paper negative
32.9 x 24.1 cm mounted on 59.2 x 46.0 cm card
Signed, titled and dated "h. Le Secq. / Chartres. / 1852." in the negative. "EB" [Ernest Binant] stationers blindstamp on mount