French Urban Photography Place de la Concorde Paris by Neurdein Frères Late 19th Century

Paris Albumen Photograph

Photograph

Neurdein Frères, Place de la Concorde, late nineteenth century, records one of Paris’s principal civic spaces during the period when the Neurdein photographic enterprise was producing views of French cities, monuments, and architecture for an expanding tourist market. Place de la Concorde carried several layers of French political history: renamed Place de la Révolution during the French Revolution and used for executions by guillotine, it was subsequently reshaped as a monumental public square, with the Luxor Obelisk erected at its center in 1836. By the later nineteenth century, views of the square formed part of the photographic documentation and commercial circulation of modern Paris.

Albumen print measuring 8 ½" x 11", mounted to a stiff light blue paper mount measuring 9 ½" x 12". The image presents a broad view of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, preserving the appearance of the square and its surrounding urban setting in the nineteenth century. The lower portion of the print bears the photographer’s mark “X Phot.” The mark is associated with Neurdein Frères, the Paris photographic firm established by Étienne Neurdein and Louis Antonin Neurdein. The firm increasingly concentrated on architectural, monument, and city views beginning in the 1870s; “X Phot.” was among the commercial marks used for its photographic production during the later nineteenth century.

The photograph belongs to the extensive nineteenth-century production of Paris views made for travelers and the international photographic market, when albumen prints enabled images of the capital’s monuments, boulevards, and public spaces to circulate well beyond France. Place de la Concorde occupied a particularly recognizable position within this visual geography, connecting the Tuileries and Champs Élysées and retaining physical associations with both the French Revolution and the nineteenth-century reconstruction of Paris. Very clean, with a few marks; very good condition. An early photographic record of Place de la Concorde associated with one of the principal commercial producers of architectural and urban views in nineteenth-century France.

Item #14050

Price: $285.00