The Port and City of Sète-Mediterranean (Port et Ville de Sète-Mediterranée)

<p>Trained as an academic painter, Gustave Le Gray achieved numerous technical and compositional innovations in photography. He gained acclaim in London in 1856 for a series of large-scale, technically accomplished seascapes made on the Normandy coastline. This photograph belongs to a series made the following year in the Mediterranean coast city of Sète, where Le Gray was on assignment to document a new train station. He positioned himself on the jetty that separated the port from the sea to make this photograph of the two-stacked steamship <em>Saïd</em> leading other vessels at anchor in the harbor. Another version of the same scene, made from the city side of the harbor, was reproduced as an engraving and published in <em>Le Monde illustré</em> in May of 1857.</p>