Chalons Encampment: Maneuvers on October 3 (Camp de Châlons: manoeuvres du 3 octobre)

Photography and Media

1857

Gustave Le Gray
French, 1820–1884

After achieving considerable success for his seascapes and studio work, Gustave Le Gray received a monumental commission from Napoléon III in 1857. The emperor asked Le Gray to document the newly inaugurated Camp de Châlons, a vast military training ground for 25,000 troops and 6,000 horses. Le Gray’s results were edited and collated into a series of presentation albums offered by Napoléon III to the principal officers participating in exercises held at the camp (this print is drawn from one such album). Unfazed by lengthy exposure times or the immensity of his subject, Le Gray displayed a characteristic sensitivity to composition and light. In this photograph, a mounted officer and a soldier in a bearskin cap are visible in the foreground, but the line of troops receding into the haze suggests the presence of unseen multitudes.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Photography and Media

Artist: Gustave Le Gray
Title: Chalons Encampment: Maneuvers on October 3 (Camp de Châlons: manoeuvres du 3 octobre)
Place: France (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1857
Medium: Albumen print, from the album "Souvenirs du Camp de Châlons"
Dimensions: 27 × 36 cm (10 11/16 × 14 3/16 in.)
Credit Line: Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment
Reference Number: 1995.130.10
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/144430/manifest.json

Janis, Eugenia Parry. 1987. “The Photography of Gustave Le Gray.” Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago/University of Chicago Press. p. 84, pl. 1. (other print of this image)
Aubenas, Sylvie. 2002. “Gustave Le Gray: 1820–1884.” Exh. cat. J. Paul Getty Museum/Bibliothèque Nationale de France. p. 138, fig. 165, cat. 146. (other print of this image)
Aubenas, Sylvie. 2003. “Gustave Le Gray.” Phaidon Press Limited. n.p. (other print of this image)
Travis, David. 2003. “Cavalry Maneuvers.” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, vol. 29, no. 2. pp. 36-37.

Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 10 Permanent Collection Rotation, May 10-September 28, 2014.
Art Institute of Chicago, “New Faces and Other Recent Acquisitions,” July 11, 1997–January 19, 1998. (David Travis and Sylvia Wolf)
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Photography of Gustave Le Gray,” September 18–December 6, 1987.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Of National Interest: Photographs from the Collection,” September 13, 2008–January 11, 2009. (Katherine A. Bussard and Gregory Harris)

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