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19th-Century Central Park: Victor Prevost’s 1862 Photos of the New Central Park
 sponsored by | Charles Schwartz Ltd.
21 East 90th Street
New York, New York 10128 USA
Contact: Charles Schwartz
Email: cms@cs-photo.com
Phone: 212-534-4496
Exhibit Hours: By appointment
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Covered Wooden Boat Dock, Central Park, NY |
French-born Victor Prevost (1820-1881) is one of the earliest photographers to work in New York City, and these views of Central Park’s construction are rare, indeed.
Prevost studied in France under Paul Delaroche, and learned complicated photographic printing techniques from fellow student, Gustave Le Gray. However, after setting up his own studio on Broadway and Bleeker Street (he emigrated here in 1850), Prevost failed to become a commercial success. His landscapes are a subtle, and rather idiosyncratic mix of the documentary and aesthetic traditions. Aside from a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2003, his work has gone largely unknown by a contemporary public, though numerous large institutions have long collected his work.
What sing out in these rare albumen prints (along with the numerous architectural and structural details), is the incredibly fresh feel—sans mature trees, skyscrapers and the like—of the nascent Central Park. Look for the temporary wooden staircase (used by artisans) in the foreground of the Terrace’s main staircase; the planters (long since disappeared) on Bow Bridge; and the wooden houses Prevost captured on Central Park West, visible beyond the span of the Pine Bank Arch.
It is extremely rare to find Prevost prints in private hands. The bulk of the artist’s oeuvre resides in the George Eastman House, the Museum of the City of New York, and the New York Historical Society (though the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in D.C., amongst others, also own prints and negatives). These images were made in the latter part of the artist’s career, and most are signed in the negative.
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