©2010 Jean Collier Hurley
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
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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-twentiethcentury photographers like Margaret Bourke-White working almost a century after Marville.
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Dates are included when available. Many of Marville’s prints were not dated.
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Fig. 3 (69) (Calotype) Palais du Louvre
le pavillon de l’Horloge
Fig. 4 (139) (Collodion) Prison de la Santé
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 SaintLaurent in Figure 6 reveals such fine detail that it almost looks like a drawing rather than a
photograph.
Fig. 5 (145) École des mines,
boulevard Saint-Michel
Fig. 6 (103) Église Saint-Laurent,
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)
Rue Haute-des-Ursins
Fig. 12 (300)
Rue des Trois-Canettes
Fig. 13 (395)
Rue de Breteuil
Fig. 14 (312)
Rue Sainte-Croix
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Fig. 15 (536)
Rue du Jardinet
Fig. 16 (304)
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. 24 (214) Rue de Traktir et l’avenue
d’Eylau (avenue Victor-Hugo)
Fig. 23 (213) Squares des Arts-et-Métiers
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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