©2010 Jean Collier Hurley

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Charles Marville: The Man Who Preserved Paris

Paris, one of the world’s most beautiful cities, was the birthplace of photography and

has become one of the world’s most photographed cities. Like a patient model, the city has

posed for photographers who used angle, light, and frame to bring out the beauty or reality of

its unique qualities. Charles Marville, one of the earliest of those photographers, captured the

city at its ugliest and its most beautiful during the mid-nineteenth-century renovation directed

by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The content of Marville’s work preserved “Old

Paris” for future generations, and the quality of his work set a standard for photographers for

years to follow.

Beginning in 1835 at age nineteen Marville learned the techniques of printing by

creating engravings, vignettes, and lithographs for published books. His talent was

acknowledged at a young age when his landscape engravings and vignettes were published in

two beautifully illustrated books. (Chambord 45). In 1851 he moved to Lille near the Belgian

border to study and work with famed printer Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, referred to as

“the Gutenberg of photography” (Rice 45-46). The acclaimed publishing house of

Blanquart-Evrard was the first to specialize in the production of photographic prints.

Marville entered an environment rich with opportunities to refine his printing skills.

Blanquart-Evrard was a leader and innovator in the art of photographic printing, having

established the first large scale printing company in France. He studied in England with

William Henry Fox Talbot, who had refined and improved upon the original calotype

photographic process developed by Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in the 1820’s.

Following his work with Talbot, Blanquart-Evrard brought calotype printing to France. He

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also developed the albumen paper printing technique, leading to the mass production of

artist’s prints and the highly popular and ubiquitous Carte de Visite (Rosenblum 195)

From 1851 to 1855 Marville immersed himself in travel for Blanquart-Evrard,

developing and honing his photographic skills in Algeria, along the Rhine River, in the

Picardy region in Northern France, and in Italy. His subjects included castles, churches and

cathedrals, including the Milan Duomo, as well as country landscapes, clouds, trees, roads,

isolated buildings, and his self-portrait which he printed on his calling card. He was awarded

the Grande Médaille d’Or for his photographs in Italy of which he was quite proud and which

he used in advertising his work (Chambord 66).

The calotype “dry plate” process that Marville used from 1851 to 1855 produced a

paper negative from which multiple images could be made, but it had a long thirty-second

exposure time. This was more of a problem for portrait photographers than for Marville

whose work was centered on stationary architectural structures. The nature of the calotype

process let Marville use his resourcefulness when he traveled, packing with his equipment a

portable negative holder that let him take several pictures without going into the dark room

(Rice 86).

In 1855 Marville shifted to the new collodion technology, which substantially reduced

the exposure time and produced prints of greater clarity than could be achieved with calotype.

In addition, with collodion he could produce an unlimited number of prints using the albumen

paper printing for which Blanquart-Evrard was known. Collodion was a “wet plate” process

that differed from the calotype in that the plate was wet when exposed and had to be

developed while still moist, immediately after exposure. This was a cumbersome routine that

meant Marville had to use a horse-drawn wagon or hand cart to set up a portable darkroom on

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outdoor sites (Rosenblum 196). Using the collodion process, Marville expanded his

photographic repertoire to include a series of monuments throughout Paris from churches to

museums to schools and even to prisons, thus documenting the city’s architecture, life and

history.

Early in his photography career, Marville was hired to photograph sculpture for the

Louvre. Initially using the calotype technique, Marville drew on his previous experience as

an engraver to bring to this work remarkably precise attention to detail. In the calotype print

of the goddess, Diana, in Figure 1, Marville anchored the photograph with a strong central

image, using light to draw our attention to the figure and its massive base rather than to the

darker background.

Fig. 1 (71) 1 (Calotype) Musée du Louvre, la statue de Diane par Jean Goujon

In a collodion image of statuary produced twenty years later, Marville created a print

with even greater clarity and detail. His skillful incorporation of light in the photograph pulls

1 All photographs are the work of Marville and are from Marie de Thézy, Marville: Paris unless otherwise noted.

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our eye along the line of statues to the massive pillars in the background. He employs the

same visual effect in many of his images incorporating windows, fences, and trees.

Fig. 2 (149) (Collodion vers 1876) 2 École des beaux arts, la nouvelle sale des moulages

Marville photographed many monuments in a style that remained consistent over the

years. A comparison of the calotype image of the Louvre in Figure 3 made in the early

1850’s reveals similarities to the later collodion image of the prison in Figure 4. The massive

dome of the Louvre is emphasized by the tight cropping of the image so that the building fills

the frame and extends beyond its boundaries. The dome is flanked by a stream of windows

creating a rhythmic alternation of light and dark fields. The prison is also massive with a

large central dome and a diagonal line of repeating windows. The sculptural style of the

prison image is remarkably similar to the style of architectural images of mid-twentieth-

century photographers like Margaret Bourke-White working almost a century after Marville.

2 Dates are included when available. Many of Marville’s prints were not dated.

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Fig. 3 (69) (Calotype) Palais du Louvre Fig. 4 (139) (Collodion) Prison de la Santé

le pavillon de l’Horloge

From 1855 to 1878 Marville established a successful career on his own as a

photographer, primarily in Paris. In addition to his early work for the Louvre, his prints were

featured in several books, and he documented the wedding of Napoleon III and the baptism of

his son, the Prince Imperial (Chambord 9). Marville mastered the technique of making and

printing photographs, but he was secretive about the processes that he used and he distanced

himself from the community of professional photographers in Paris. Although he seldom

exhibited his work, when he did participate in exhibitions in London, Vienna, and Italy, the

reviews were positive. Critics described his work as “first-class prints,” “exquisitely precise,”

“harmonious,” and “beautiful.” The famous portrait photographer, Nadar, pronounced his

work “remarkable” (Chambord 66).

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Marville’s talent for precision and harmony are evident in Figures 5 and 6. His early

skill as a landscape illustrator is reflected in the selection, framing, and precise printing of the

graceful trees in front of the École des mines in Figure 5. The image of the Église Saint-

Laurent in Figure 6 reveals such fine detail that it almost looks like a drawing rather than a

photograph.

Fig. 5 (145) École des mines, Fig. 6 (103) Église Saint-Laurent,

boulevard Saint-Michel la nouvelle façade

Among the monuments photographed by Marville was the Hôtel de Ville, the Paris

City Hall. Designed in the sixteenth century and completed in 1628, it remained in use until it

was burned and destroyed by the Paris Commune in 1871. The structure was eventually

rebuilt and completed in 1892 with the exterior duplicating the original sixteenth-century

style. In his print of the original structure, shown in Figure 7, Marville emphasizes the

elaborate decorative elegance of the ancient design by zooming in on the façade, as he did in

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the Louvre image. In contrast, when he photographed the burned out shell in Figure 8 he

included the entire length of the building, emphasizing the scope of the senseless destruction.

Fig. 7 (119) Ancien Hôtel de Ville, façade principale

Fig. 8 (121) Ruines de l’ancien Hôtel de Ville après l’incendie de 1871

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The depth of Marville’s experience and his technical skill made him an ideal candidate

to document the enormous project undertaken in 1853 by Emperor Napoleon III and Baron

Haussmann, Prefect of the Seine. Paris at that time was a dark, overcrowded “quasi-medieval

city,” with insufficient housing and services, a filthy, polluted water supply, and an unhealthy

environment that fostered cholera epidemics. Open courtyards were cluttered with shacks,

dilapidated housing, and tattered shops. The narrow streets limited passage of carriages,

restricted movements of government troops, and provided easy sites for insurrection

barricades. Napoleon III developed an urban plan to rebuild the city and overcome these

problems. His design would facilitate transportation across the city with broad north-south,

east-west boulevards, which would also connect with railway stations. The lives of the

common people would be improved with access to fresh water, air, and sunlight for their

physical and mental health. Parks with water, plants, and walkways would encourage healthy

outdoor activities. Baron Haussmann was hired to implement this ambitious plan (Chambord

8).

Haussmann began his work in 1853, refining the emperor’s plan for demolition and

reconstruction and pronouncing himself the “artiste-demolisseur” (Chambord 8). His vision

was for a new Paris that would be beautiful, healthy, and livable. Old narrow, winding streets

would be replaced with straight broad boulevards. Streets would open up into public squares

where grand monuments would be displayed and new government buildings would be

erected. Neighborhoods would be connected and less insular. Parks would be developed for

health and beauty, a sewer system would be built, healthy water sources would be provided,

and new street lamps would contribute to public safety.

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Haussmann realized that the extraordinary benefits of the new construction would be

made most evident by comparing the new with the old. He wanted a thorough documentation

of the before, during, and after stages of this ambitious project. Informing Napoleon III in

1865 that “The history of the capital needs to be written,” Haussmann received an enthusiastic

response, “it would enable us to trace down through the centuries the transformations in a city

that, due to your indefatigable activity, is today the most splendid of all the European

capitals.” Haussmann hired a group of archivists under the collective name City Council

Permanent Subcommittee on Historic Works. Marville was engaged as the “photographe de

la ville de Paris.” With the advice of the archivists, he produced hundreds of photographs that

were published in a multivolume collection of documents and books (Chambord 9, 67). Both

Haussmann and his work were documented for posterity.

Haussmann enthusiastically implemented the plan set out by Napoleon III, even when

it meant shifting from one concept to another, as with the marketplace pavilions, Les Halles,

designed by architect Victor Baltard. The first of several planned pavilions was built in 1851

with the traditional stone exterior. However, by 1853 Napoleon III considered the heavy

stone structure to be a reflection of the Old Paris and he demanded that the remaining

pavilions be constructed using modern metal materials (Moncan 73). Marie de Thézy

describes the emperor’s negative reaction to the stone pavilion, “Ce premier pavillon, en

pierre, déplut a l’empereur, qui demanda à l’architecte des pavillons métalliques” (Thézy

152).

Marville photographed both the stone and metal pavilions. He made a distinction in

the framing of the heavier stone structure and the lighter and newer metal pavilion. The stone

building’s dark doorway and windows fill most of the image frame emphasizing its heavy and

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massive structure, whereas the metal building is framed in its entire length with a light-filled

opening at the end and appears streamlined, open, and modern.

Fig. 9 (152) Halle à la vivande par Baltard, ce premier pavillon, en pierre

Fig. 10 (153) Les nouvelles Halles centrals par Baltard 1868

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Marville approached his work in a methodical fashion, photographing all of the areas

to be demolished, or in his words “pierced” (Chambord 10). He traced Haussmann’s overall

plan in his selection of the streets and buildings to be preserved in his images. Marville’s

before, during, and after images constitute a series, rather than stand-alone images. His work

follows the evolution of the streets and buildings of Paris from their medieval roots to the new

modern age.

Marville’s most famous and prodigious work is his photography of the streets of Paris,

intended to show the Old Paris before the Haussmann demolition (Figures 11 to 16).

According to Thézy, photographs taken before the demolition were made between 1865 and

1868, although they are not dated (291). Marville selected his viewpoint and framed his

images to emphasize the abrupt end of narrow streets, the tightness of passageways, the

intrusion of merchant stands, the absence of sidewalks, and the dark oppressiveness of tall

buildings out of whose windows buckets of garbage were thrown into the wastewater

channels that ran down the middle of the streets. His images tell a story of life in Old Paris.

One’s passage through the city by carriage is limited by narrow, dirty (and probably smelly)

passageways, with many twists and turns to reach one’s destination. Travel by foot is difficult

with narrow or no sidewalks, dirty gutters where a woman’s garment would be invariably be

soiled, circuitous streets where one could easily get lost, and dark corners where one might be

anxious about personal safety. His choice of perspective draws us down each narrow street to

an abrupt end.

Marville’s photographs visually cut through crooked streets to reveal the future path of

a broad new boulevard. At times a building is cut in half in the frame of the image, depicting

a future thoroughfare. Unlike the work of Eugene Atget, Marville’s better known successor,

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Marville’s images do not frame signs, shops, and store fronts. He was documenting

Haussmann’s vision, showing the streets where light and movement were obstructed and

where the new construction would revolutionize movement and access throughout the city.

His subjects are the streets, the slums, and the soon to be demolished buildings.

Each street was photographed from at least two vantage points, usually from an

intersection that would emphasize the long, narrow, winding path often with an obstruction or

dead-end. He shot from a low camera position to emphasize the uneven stones, irregular

surface, and gutters “awash with noxious waste water” (Chambord 10). He often worked late

in the day when there was little light, which emphasized the oppressiveness of the narrow

streets. His photographs of construction sites incorporate light and contrast to illustrate the

chaotic aspect of the scene, depicting the chaos that would be replaced by Haussmann with

order and beauty (Thézy 32,34). His framing, lighting, and viewing angle emphasize the

problems that were to be solved by the new construction, “the narrow, uneven passages

chocked with curbstones and carts . . . the insalubrious, dank darkness which would be opened

to light and air” (Chambord 10).

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Fig. 11 (306) Fig. 12 (300)

Rue Haute-des-Ursins Rue des Trois-Canettes

Fig. 13 (395) Fig. 14 (312)

Rue de Breteuil Rue Sainte-Croix

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Fig. 15 (536) Fig. 16 (304)

Rue du Jardinet Rue des Marmousets

Marville’s before and after images of Boulevard Arago in Figures 17 and 18 clearly

illustrate the extent of the demolition, the jarring unsettling appearance of the project, and the

broad, light-filled vista after its completion.

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Fig. 17 (678) Percement du boulevard Arago

Fig. 18 (688) Boulevard Arago vers 1877

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The piercing of l’avenue de l’Opéra in Figure 19 illustrates the intended vista of the

street which will be open to the Opera House after the construction is completed.

Fig. 19 (447) Percement de l’avenue de l’Opéra

Marville made the images of the Panthéon in Figures 20 and 21 viewing from the Rue

Soufflot during and after the reconstruction of the street. As the final resting place for a

number of distinguished French citizens, and with a view that looks out over the city, the

Panthéon is one of the most important architectural monuments in Paris. It was designed by

Jacques-Germain Soufflot in 1755 as a church, and completed in 1790. It was converted to a

secular mausoleum during the Revolution.

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Fig. 20 La Rue Soufflot en travaux et Panthéon 1876 (Moncan 52)

Fig. 21 La Rue Soufflot achevee et Panthéon 1877 (Moncan 52)

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Baron Haussmann was honored for his work with his own boulevard, photographed by

Marville in Figure 22.

Fig. 22 (477) Boulevard Haussmann in 1877

The construction of elegant promenades, wide boulevards, and sidewalks led to the

design and installation of urban furniture – kiosks, benches, bathrooms, fountains, and street

lights. New gas lamps that could be lighted with a switch replaced the old oil lanterns making

it easier to illuminate the streets to provide safe passage in the evening. The lamps were

designed to be unique to each location, and Marville documented over one hundred different

styles (Thézy 27). He captured the artistry of the metalwork design by making the

background slightly out of focus so that the entire lamp is more prominent, or by viewing at

an upward angle so that the area around the fixture is clear.

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Fig. 23 (213) Squares des Arts-et-Métiers Fig. 24 (214) Rue de Traktir et l’avenue

d’Eylau (avenue Victor-Hugo)

In Figure 25, Avenue de l’Opéra, Marville not only diffused the background but also

cut the doorway in half to place the lamp post in the center of the frame. In Figure 26, Rue

Caurmartin, Marville fills the image with bright sunlight, clouds, and trees, enhancing the

playfulness of the tufted tops on the lamps that seem to replicate the clusters of leaves.

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Fig. 25 (236) Avenue de l’Opéra Fig. 26 (233) Rue Caurmartin

In Figure 27, a l’Angle de l’Avenue Rapp, Marville captures a remarkable contrast:

Old and New Paris in one frame. On the right behind the new street lamp is a building that

will be demolished, and on the left is a new stone building with balconies looking out onto the

street.

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Fig. 27 a l’angle de l’avenue Rapp et de la Saint-Dominique 1877 (Moncan 6)

In documenting the renovation of Place du Châtelet, Marville preserved one of

Haussmann’s most remarkable renovation/preservation achievements – the relocation of the

Fontaine du Palmier also called Fontaine de la Victoire. Not only did Marville capture the

relocation of the huge and elaborate fountain and sculptured column, but he also included the

famous tower of the church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie. The church was demolished in

1797 and the ornate tower, named a Monument Historique in 1862, is all that remains. In

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Figure 28 we see the tower under renovation on the right and in Figure 30 we see the

completed tower behind the trees.

Fig. 28 L’ancienne Place du Châtelet 1855 (Moncan 98)

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Fig. 29 Le déplacement de la Fontaine de la Victoire 1858 (Moncan 99)

Fig. 30 La nouvelle Place du Châtelet 1877 (Moncan 99)

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Haussmann built many parks employing a dimension-based design system he created

with a category for large parks like Bois de Boulogne, then inner city public promenades, and

finally smaller private parks and squares. The design incorporated the emperor’s fondness for

the English garden style, with irregular landscapes, winding paths, water features, rocks, and

willow trees. Marville’s experience as a landscape illustrator must have given him a certain

pleasure in this work, and it reveals itself in the grace with which he framed and illustrated the

parks with his camera. The position of the light in his image of the waterfall in the Bois de

Boulogne, in Figure 31, emphasizes the bright white cascading water and creates a mirror-like

reflection in the stream, drawing our eye to the center focal point. The sunlight filtering

through the trees and reflecting on the wildflowers below gives the effect of lace surrounding

the waterfall.

Fig. 31 (179 Bois de Boulogne, cascade

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In Figure 32, Jardin des Champs-Élysées, Marville uses rhythmic repetition as he did

in Figure 2 of École des beaux arts, this time with a row of trees rather than statues. Our eye

follows the grove of trees to the brighter area in the background, giving the otherwise still,

quiet image a sense of movement.

Fig. 32 (201) Jardin des Champs-Élysées

An appreciation of Marville’s artistry in the selection and framing of his subject is

found in Figure 33, Square de Vintimille. In 1908 the artist Eduard Vuillard produced the

same image, although with a view from a balcony.

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Fig. 33 (197) Square de Vintimille

Fig. 34 Place Vintimille, Edouard Vuillard, 1908, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

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The artistic talent that Marville brought to his work is evident in the following three

images. In Figure 35, La Rue du Contrat Social, a section of a larger print, we find a cluster

of umbrellas with the graphic simplicity of a Caillebotte painting. In La Place de la Bourse,

Figure 36, Marville’s trademark repetition appears in the carriage wheels and fence posts

producing a rhythm that is almost audible. Finally, Marville’s mastery of landscape printing

is revealed in the sublime elegance of a peaceful afternoon in the Bois de Boulogne in Figure

37.

Fig. 35 La rue du Contrat Social 1865 (Moncan 80)

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Fig. 36 La Place de la Bourse et le Théâtre du Vaudeville 1865 (Moncan 118-19)

Fig. 37 Le Lac Inférieur du Bois de Boulogne (Moncan 132-33)

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Marville documented the Old Paris and the New Paris with equal attentiveness: the

city at its ugliest and its most beautiful, the work in progress, the demolition, and the new

construction conceived by Napoleon III and directed by Baron Haussmann. His work was the

visual history for Haussmann’s committee of archivists as they documented every parish

boundary, street, and building in the Old Paris. The Haussmann demolition had its detractors,

and at times the presence of Marville with his camera signaling a target for destruction was

viewed like the angel of death (Rice 85). However, Marville did not destroy the buildings; on

the contrary, his images actually saved the Old Paris for posterity.

Marville has been called, “as much a modernist as an antiquarian . . . very much a man

of his time,” but also “Haussmann’s man, quite in sympathy with the rigorous, relentless logic

of the Prefect’s plan” (Chambord 10). He photographed the old buildings and streets that had

become artifacts, and in so doing he created images that in themselves have become treasured

artifacts. Marville had an artist’s eye for composition, a photographer’s eye for light and

shadow, a printer’s attention to detail, and a historian’s sense of the significance of place. The

size of the collection of negatives and prints left by Marville exceeds that of any other

photographer of his time – a remarkable legacy in the history of one of the world’s most

beautiful and photographed cities.

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Bibliography

Chambord, Jacqueline, ed. Charles Marville: Photographs of Paris 1852-1878. New York:

French Institute, Alliance Française, 1981.

Moncan, Patrice de. Charles Marville: Paris Photographié au Temps d'Haussmann. Paris: Les

Editions du Mécène, 2009.

Rice, Shelly. Parisian Views. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997.

Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography. 3rd Edition. New York: Abbeville

Press, 1997.

Thézy, Marie de. Marville: Paris. Paris: Éditions Hazan, 1994.

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Figures

Figure 1. Musée du Louvre, la statue de Diane, par Jean Goujon

Figure 2. École des beaux arts, la nouvelle sale des moulages

Figure 3. Palais du Louvre, le pavillon de l’Horloge

Figure 4. Prison de la Santé

Figure 5. École des mines, boulevard Saint-Michel

Figure 6. Église Saint-Laurent, la nouvelle façade

Figure 7. Ancien Hôtel de Ville, façade principale

Figure 8. Ruines de l’ancien Hôtel de Ville, après l’incendie de 1871

Figure 9. Halle à la vivande par Baltard, ce premier pavillon, en pierre

Figure 10. Les nouvelles Halles centrals par Baltard 1868

Figure 11. Rue Haute-des-Ursins

Figure 12. Rue des Trois-Canettes

Figure 13. Rue de Breteuil

Figure 14. Rue Sainte-Croix

Figure 15. Rue du Jardinet

Figure 16. Rue des Marmousets

Figure 17. Percement du boulevard Arago

Figure 18. Boulevard Arago vers 1877

Figure 19. Percement de l’avenue de l’Opéra

Figure 20. La Rue Soufflot en travaux et Panthéon 1876

Figure 21. La Rue Soufflot achevée et Panthéon 1877

Figure 22. Boulevard Haussmann 1877

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Figure 23. Squares des Arts-et-Métiers

Figure 24. Rue de Traktir et avenue d’Eylau

Figure 25 and Back Cover. Avenue de l’Opéra

Figure 26. Rue Caurmartin

Figure 27. A l’angle de l’avenue Rapp et de la Saint-Dominique 1877

Figure 28. L’ancienne Place du Châtelet 1855

Figure 29. Le déplacement de la Fontaine de la Victoire 1858

Figure 30. La nouvelle Place du Châtelet 1877

Figure 31. Bois de Boulogne, cascade

Figure 32. Jardin des Champs-Élysées

Figure 33. Square de Vintimille

Figure 34. Place Vintimille, Edouard Vuillard 1908

Figure 35 and Front Cover. La rue du Contrat Social 1865

Figure 36. La Place de la Bourse et le Théâtre du Vaudeville 1865

Figure 37. Le Lac Inférieur du Bois de Boulogne

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