Process of selection: Edouard Baldus, the New Louvre Commission photographs and Palais du Louvre et des Tuileries

Edouard Baldus (1813-1889), a prominent figure in the history of French photography, is known almost exclusively for his silver-based photographs of the 1850s and early 1860s. Yet he was also at the forefront of developments in photomechanical reproduction, publishing seven books of photogravure prints between 1866 and 1884. Palais du Louvre et des Tuileries. Motifs de decoration (published in various editions between 1869 and 1875), his fourth, was the first to reproduce his own photographs rather than engravings by earlier artists. It depicts architectural elements of the Louvre and Tuileries palaces, images that stern largely from Baldus`s 1855-57 commission to document the construction of the New Louvre. Through an exploration of Palais` production and distribution, and comparative analyses of its prints with their corresponding photographs, this thesis situates Palais within Baldus`s oeuvre and argues for the significance of his photogravure production to the historiography of the photographer.