The Breaking Waves

Around the time the art of photography was presented, the painter Delaroche left the comment, “This marks the day that painting has died.” Le Gray, who studied painting under Delaroche, pursued the path of photography in earnest, earning attention for the seascape photography that he took from 1855 to 1860. This composition, which was photographed at the coast of the French harbor town of Sète, which faces the Mediterranean, was created by combining wet plates that exposed the sky and sea separately. At a time when moving photography was difficult, Le Gray splendidly captured the appearance of a raging sea.