# Stage Frieze and Cornice

- By: Louis-Emile Durandelle (French, 1839–1917)
- Date: c. 1870
- Medium: Albumen print, from "Le nouvel Opéra de Paris, Sculpture ornementale" (1875)
- Classification: Photograph
- Dimensions: Image/paper: 37.9 × 28.2 cm (14 15/16 × 11 1/8 in.); Mount: 63 × 45.2 cm (24 13/16 × 17 13/16 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Smart Family Acquisition Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/215281)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/618f38febb39bc292532a8c387da6751.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

One of the most accomplished architectural photographers in 19th-century France, Louis-Emile Durandelle is best known for his 1861–75 photographs of the construction of the Paris Opéra, an opulent structure that would come to symbolize the ambitions of Second Empire Paris. Durandelle produced some 200 images of the building and published 115, including this one, in the massive, eight-volume architectural work Le nouvel Opéra de Paris. Much of what Durandelle photographed was not visible to the unaided eye: close-up details of decorative elements, for example, or structural elements hidden inside the completed building. His images freed architects from drawing complex patterns and moldings by hand, kept clients abreast of construction progress, and formed a historical record of a huge urban undertaking.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0