Edouard Baldus - Stereoscopic View - The Ancient Theatre of Arles - Circa 1853

Magnificent and rare view of the Ancient Theatre of Arles by Edouard Baldus. Very fine chemistry, stamped "E.BALDUS" on the back. Stereoscopic photograph, vintage albumen print.

Baldus' photographic work is devoted to architecture and landscape and marked by official commissions which made him one of Napoleon III's (1808-1873) favorite photographers.

He is the official witness of his time through his numerous photographic works on the restoration of monuments or railway works.

 

He documented, among other things, the reconstruction of the Louvre and the opening of the Paris-Lyon-Marseille railway line. Alongside Hippolyte Bayard (1801-1887), Henri Le Secq (1818-1882), Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884), and O. Mestral (1812-1884), he participated in the 1851 Heliographic Mission, commissioned by the Commission of Historical Monuments to inventory the most remarkable buildings in need of restoration in various regions of France. It was in this capacity that he traveled to Arles, where he produced numerous, though rare, images that are now famous, including the ancient theater and the cloister of Saint Trophime in Arles, as well as the mausoleum of Saint Rémy and the Maison Carrée in Nîmes.