On View
Not on viewObject number1995/6.24
Chartres Cathedral
Artist
Frederick Henry Evans
(British, 1853-1943)
Dateca. 1900
Mediumplatinum print
Dimensionsimage (flush): 10 5/8 × 6 3/4 in. (27 × 17.1 cm)
mount: 19 3/4 × 13 3/8 in. (50.2 × 34 cm)
mat: 24 × 18 in. (61 × 45.7 cm)
mount: 19 3/4 × 13 3/8 in. (50.2 × 34 cm)
mat: 24 × 18 in. (61 × 45.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Wm. John Upjohn
Exhibition History"Kalamazoo Collects Photography," KIA (Mar. 1980).
"Selections from the Permanent Collection," KIA (Mar. - Apr. 1997).
"A Curator's Legacy: Helen Sheridan and the KIA Collection," KIA Long Gallery (Dec. 20, 2008 - Apr. 19, 2009).
Label TextEnglish photographer Frederick Henry Evans (1853-1943) is best known for his fastidious representations of English and French cathedrals. He took up photography in middle age after retiring as a bookseller and soon, influenced by the patience and carefulness of medieval ecclesiastical builders, became known for his painstaking methods, as he often studied his architectural subjects for weeks to evaluate various light conditions and establish the optimal moment at which to capture his image. Inspired by both religiosity and a devotion to perfectionism, the order and detail of his photographs recall the careful and skillful works of other late-19th- and early-20th-century British photographers, etchers, and writers who were similarly inspired to document and celebrate medieval cathedrals. Like Evans, many of these men were inspired by a sense of alarm about the growing modernity and impiety of the society that they perceived around them and admiration for the patience, devotion, ingenuity, and craftsmanship of the men who had erected these grand structures centuries before.
At a time when the quick-and-dirty “snapshot” was growing in popularity and many Pictorialist photographers sought to advocate for their medium’s status as art by altering their images to more closely resemble paintings, Evans became known as a passionate advocate for carefully composed, unaltered photographs. Though celebrated for the skill and detail of his work both in the first few decades of the twentieth century and today, the unpopularity of his anti-Pictorialist stance resulted in obscurity during his later years.
Mostly built in the 12th and 13th centuries, Chartres Cathedral has long been hailed as one of the most beautiful and influential medieval structures in Western Europe. Pictured here is a portion of the choir wall (16th-18th centuries), which features a series of 40 vignettes from the stories of Mary and Jesus. This photograph is less grand than many of Evans’ others, instead focusing on the ornateness of the cathedral’s interior architecture and the illumination of these elaborate details under the natural light filtering through the building’s stained glass windows.
