Who painted The Tiber, Tuileries Garden, Paris?

The Tiber, Tuileries Garden, Paris was painted by Charles Nègre in 1859.

Where can I see The Tiber, Tuileries Garden, Paris?

The Tiber, Tuileries Garden, Paris is held by Cleveland Museum of Art.

What movement is The Tiber, Tuileries Garden, Paris?

The Tiber, Tuileries Garden, Paris is associated with Impressionism.

Artwork

The Tiber, Tuileries Garden, Paris

Charles Nègre , 1859

The Tiber, Tuileries Garden, Paris is a photography by the Impressionist artist Charles Nègre. It dates from 1859 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

About this work

Overview

This early photographic print captures the stone figure of the river god Tiber, positioned amid the trees and walkways of Paris’s Tuileries Garden. The image is one of a limited set derived from large‑format glass negatives made in the late 1850s, and it documents one of the garden’s four water‑themed sculptures.

Subject & Meaning

The sculpture represents Tiber, the mythological deity of the river that flows through Rome. As a water god, the figure forms part of a quartet of allegorical statues that celebrate the element of water within the garden’s ornamental program.

Technique & Style

The photograph was produced from a sizable glass plate negative, a relatively new medium in the 1850s that permitted fine tonal gradations and sharp detail. The resulting print exhibits a subtle play of light and shadow, echoing the chiaroscuro effects traditionally achieved in painting.

History & Provenance

French painter‑turned‑photographer Charles Nègre received state funding in 1859 to document fifty statues in the Tuileries. Although the commission remained unfinished, Nègre’s glass negatives survived, and this print is among the few unique impressions that were later printed from those plates.

Context

The project reflects mid‑century French interest in combining photography with the documentation of public art, positioning the new medium alongside established practices of architectural and sculptural recording.