Steamer in Lake Thun, Switzerland

Adolphe Braun (French, 1811–1877)

c. 1860

Medium
Albumen print
Classification
Photograph
Dimensions
47.6 × 39 cm (18 3/4 × 15 3/8 in.)
Culture
France
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago, Photography and Media
Credit line
The Mary and Leigh Block Endowment Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Kids profiles and older: it shows nature, places, still life or a children's book. How works are placed

View at the Art Institute of Chicago

About this work

Adolphe Braun first took up photography as an aid in his burgeoning wallpaper and textile design business, concentrating on the floral and other still–life compositions that brought him international acclaim. Around 1859 he began to focus on making large–format, panoramic, and stereoscopic views of locales in Switzerland and Germany, which he marketed to the emerging tourist audience. Within about 10 years he had amassed a catalogue of around 6,000 stereoscopic views and more than 500 panoramas, which were sold near tourist destinations and in curio shops. In this image of Lake Thun, bordering Interlaken, Switzerland, Braun portrayed a snaking waterway framed by mountains on either side, an image modeled on picturesque painted landscapes.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0