A rare photograph of Orléans Cathedral

The Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans has just enriched its photographic collection with an exceptional piece: a rare albumen print dating from 1857, depicting the Sainte-Croix d'Orléans cathedral, by the Bisson brothers, Louis-Auguste and Auguste-Rosalie. These two pioneers of photography, alongside such emblematic figures as Nadar, Baldus and Le Gray, left their mark on the history of artistic and documentary photography, notably through their spectacular large-format images, including those of Mont Blanc, which earned them international renown.

The Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d'Orléans is part of a vast 19th-century publishing project: the Reproductions photographiques des plus beaux types d'architecture et de sculpture d'après les monuments les plus remarquables de l'antiquité, du moyen-âge et de la Renaissance, published between 1854 and 1864. In 1994, the museum added six prints from this series to its collections, including images of the cathedrals of Reims, Chartres, Arles and Notre-Dame de Paris. Until now, no view of Orléans Cathedral had been preserved... This gap has now been filled thanks to the acquisition of this rare print, made possible by the support of the Friends of the Musées d'Orléans. Friends of the Orléans Museums.