[École des Beaux-Arts, Paris] / [In the Garden of the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris]

Charles Marville (born Charles-François Bossu), like a number of French illustrators and caricaturists, made the transition to photography in the early 1850s. His artistic career had begun with training at the Académie Suisse and the Athénée des Beaux-Arts. He then worked in the booming field of illustration for eighteen years, creating wood engravings for books and magazines. His illustrations appeared in diverse publications, including books such as Prudence-Guillaume de Roujoux's book Histoire pittoreseque de l'Angleterre (1834) and journals such as L'Illustration. His experiences in the industry of mass market illustration, where he worked for hire under tight deadlines, clearly served him well when he turned to photography.

Marville's association with photographer and publisher Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard was comparable in many ways to that of Reverend Calvert Richard Jones with William Henry Fox Talbot. Both supplied negatives destined for production in editions that are estimated to have ranged in size from twenty-five to fifty prints from each negative—mass production in this early stage in the history of photography. When Blanquart-Evrard's business went bankrupt in 1855, Marville was forced once again to make a professional transition. He successfully did so by broadening his reach to create photographs for architects, artists, museums, and even the city administration of Paris. He also tried his hand at publishing photographs. Marville continued to be an active entrepreneur in photography for over thirty years. His images of Paris offer a record of Paris's architecture—both its grand buildings and its more commonplace courtyards, impasses and street—in the 1850s through the 1870s. In span of three decades, his photographs also trace changes in the physical layout and the social and economic makeup of the city.

Adapted from Weston Naef, The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Photographs Collection (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995), 29. © 1995 The J. Paul Getty Museum; with additions by Carolyn Peter, Department of Photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019.

For further information on this work and the artist, see:
Kennel, Sara. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris. Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 2013.