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1857 Gustave Le Gray ( photographer )

Self portrait Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884)

Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray (August 30, 1820 – July 30, 1884) was a French painter, draughtsman, sculptor, print-maker, and photographer.

He has been called "the most important French photographer of the nineteenth century" because of his technical innovations, his instruction of other noted photographers, and "the extraordinary imagination he brought to picture making." He was an important contributor to the development of the wax paper negative

Gustave Le Gray was born on August 30, 1820 in Villiers-le-Bel, Val-d'Oise. He was an only child of a haberdasher. His parents encouraged him to become a solicitor's clerk, but from a young age, he aspired to be an artist.

He was originally trained as a painter, studying under François-Édouard Picot and Paul Delaroche. His parents financed a trip to Switzerland and Italy so that he could study art abroad, and he lived in Italy between 1843-1846 and painted portraits and scenes of the countryside.

Le Gray exhibited his paintings at the Salon of 1848 and Salon of 1853. He then crossed over to photography in the early years of its development.

He made his first daguerreotypes by 1847. His real contributions - artistically and technically - were in the area of paper photography. His early photographs included portraits, scenes of nature such as Fontainebleau Forest, and buildings such as châteaux of the Loire Valley.