Gipsmodel voor een paneel op het Palais du Louvre door Morand c. 1855 - 1857

Edouard Baldus made this photograph of a plaster cast for the Palais du Louvre. It shows a capital N, for Napoleon, with symbols of royalty, and vegetation. Baldus worked in France during a period of intense state-sponsored building programs. This photograph testifies to a particular moment in the institutional history of Paris, where the royal palace of the Louvre was being expanded under the direction of Napoleon III. This was a moment when photography was increasingly being used to document public works, and to further state interests. We can understand this image as being part of a wider project of national self-fashioning under the Second Empire. Further research into the archives of the Louvre, as well as studies of the political history of France, will allow us to understand the photograph in its full historical context.