Ornamentele vaas met een bassin before 1881

Edouard Baldus made this photograph of an ornamental vase with a basin at an unknown date. Baldus was one of a number of photographers employed by the French Commission des Monuments Historiques in the mid-nineteenth century. The image depicts a sculpted vase in the formal gardens of the Palace of Versailles, and its meaning is constructed through visual codes linked to power, wealth and taste. Commissioned by Louis XIII and significantly expanded by Louis XIV, Versailles was designed as a physical manifestation of royal authority, and as a carefully-staged theatre for court life. Baldus’s photograph is part of a broader cultural project to survey and document France’s architectural heritage, with the aim of instilling a sense of national pride and historical continuity. To understand the complex social and institutional histories of which this photograph is a part, historians might use archival sources, government records, and visual culture studies. This helps us understand how Baldus’s image contributes to the ongoing construction of French national identity.