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Untitled [The frozen fountain of the Chateau d'Eau] Daguerreotype. n.d.[1842] 33/4 x 43/4in. (9.4 x 12cm.) LITERATURE See: Paris Mus‚es (Ed.), Paris et le Daguerr‚otype, p. 159 and p. 240, Quettier, P. et al., Sur les Traces de Girault de Prangey 1804-1892, p. 107 and Frizot, M. et al, A New History of Photography, p. 35, for reproductions of two variant images of the same subject. See: Gernsheim, L.J.M. Daguerre The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype, pl. 16, for an illustration showing the fountain in front of the Diorama. NOTES The most magical subject by far from the small series of Parisian architectural studies made by Girault de Prangey in 1841 and early 1842. The frozen fountain glints in the sunlight, sparkling in a fairy-tale winter scene that encapsulates the romantic image of the city, even today. A low viewpoint has been used, which raises the plume of icy water above the Paris rooftops, allowing it to be clearly defined against the sky. It simultaneously enhances the impression of the height of the fountain and the dramatic mass of the ice encrusting it. The fountain of the Chateau d'Eau, here almost invisible under its cloak of ice, was designed by Girard in 1811. It had three shallow basins protected by eight lions and was originally situated on the boulevard Saint-Martin near the rue de Bondy. The surrounding area has special associations with photography: in 1822, Daguerre's Diorama was built opposite it, on the rue Sanson. After the Diorama burned down in 1839, Daguerre himself lived at 17, boulevard Saint-Martin. The fountain was moved in 1867. Only four daguerreotypes by Girault de Prangey have been recorded of this subject, of which two are in the collection of the BibliothŠque nationale de France, donated by the Comte de Simony in 1950. Each of these is titled and dated 1842.