Gustave Eiffel devant la pile n° 4

The construction of the Eiffel Tower in the heart of Paris, for the Exposition universelle of 1889, established photography as the preeminent medium for the representation of metal architecture. From 28 January 1887 — when foundation work began — until the end of assembly on 31 March 1889, the construction site was the subject of numerous photographic campaigns.

Louis Émile Durandelle, already known for, among other things, his photographs of the construction of Charles Garnier’s Paris Opera, began work on the tower at the very start of 1887 with a series of plates, taken from a distance and scrupulously dated, documenting the speed of its assembly. Through frontal views, sometimes structured by interlacing lines, triangles and pyramids, Durandelle reveals an almost exclusive interest in form. While early views of the site are fairly numerous, those in which Gustave Eiffel himself appears are considerably rarer.

Dates and reference numbers appear in the negative, lower right. The Fonds Eiffel at the Musée d’Orsay holds an identical print (no. PHO 1981-125-9 b), a gift from Solange Granet, a descendant of Gustave Eiffel, as part of a group of 15 Durandelle prints on the subject.