Study of Rocks / Unknown
French, about 1845
Half-plate daguerreotype
4 1/8 x 5 3/4 in.
84.XT.183
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Questions for Teaching

• The object you see here is a daguerreotype, an early form of photography. What is the subject of this image?

• Why do you think the photographer decided to take the image so close-up with no surrounding details? (The daguerreotypist closely framed the rocks so that they loom over the head of the viewer. The artist who made the image was probably interested in capturing the rock as a specimen, possibly using the image for research in geological study.)

• What does the title Study of Rocks tell you about the photograph? What doesn't the title tell you about the photograph? (In the case of this photograph, the title raises many more questions than it answers. The title is likely a modern title, an indication that we do not know the original title. It tells you only that the image might have been some sort of rock study. It does not explain how it was used, what type of rocks, or even where or when the photograph was made.)

• Compare this image with Courbet's painting Grotto of Sarrazine near Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne. What similarities do you see? What differences do you see?

• Which elements of art (line, shape/form, color, texture, space) are best represented in this photograph? Where do you see them in the photo? (The photographer seems to have focused most on line, texture, space, and form in this close, cropped image of rocks.)

• If you were asked to take a photograph of rocks for study, what might you do differently?

Background Information

Jagged rocks jut out toward the viewer and fill the frame with a sense of the powerful forces that formed them. Were they the result of ancient biblical catastrophes such as earthquakes and floods, or of slow evolutionary forces, such as glacial retreating? In the 1800s, two main schools of thought emerged around the question of how these landforms were created. This fractured rock formation may have been photographed for scientific study to provide evidence for this discussion. It also may have been part of a system of classification of rocks using the new photographic medium.

This photograph is actually a daguerreotype—a one-of-a-kind, highly detailed photographic image on a polished copper plate coated with silver. It was the first popular photographic medium and enjoyed great success when it was introduced in 1839.

Geology in the 19th Century
In the 18th century, geological study emerged as a separate field, and by the 19th century, many people were studying geological topics in Europe and America, although the term geologist was not yet in general use. One of the major questions of 19th-century geology revolved around the Earth's exact age. Estimates ranged from a few hundred thousand years to billions of years. Catastrophism was a major theory of the shaping of the Earth that proposed that geologic formations were created by sudden violent events, such as floods and earthquakes. Catastrophism was closely tied to religion and catastrophic origins were explained as miraculous, rather than natural events.

Some leading figures in 19th-century geology were George Cuvier, Alexandre Brongniart, and Sir Charles Lyell who published Principles of Geology in 1830. A dialogue existed between artist and scientists in the 19th century; for example Jules Marcou, who made geologic studies of the Jura region of France, commissioned another Jura native, artist Gustave Courbet, to create a painting, La Roche Pourrie, in which the scientist is pictured.