Cheval de Marly, Paris

1934, printed 1988

Cheval de Marly, Paris, 1934, printed 1988. Ilse Bing (American, 1899–1998). Gelatin silver print; image: 26.1 x 34 cm (10 1/4 x 13 3/8 in.); paper: 27.8 x 35.4 cm (10 15/16 x 13 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2020.295 © Estate of Ilse Bing Bing employed it for night views of Paris to impart what she described as “a surrealistic atmosphere.” The technique involves briefly re-exposing a partially developed negative or print to light, which caused positive and negative values to reverse in some, but not all, areas of the image. This sculpture, Mercury Mounted on Pegasus, 1702, stands in the Tuileries Garden in the center of Paris. Ilse Bing used a technique called solarization to produce dreamlike, supernatural scenes.