PIERRE DUBREUIL (1872-1944)

In Dubreuil's superb modernist photograph of 1908, the chestnut leaf in the foreground almost obliterates Notre Dame, the subject of the image. What makes the photograph even more extraordinary is that apparently no chestnut trees existed at this location--this is pure photo montage by Dubreuil, who printed life-sized chestnut leaves from another negative. When the picture was exhibited in London, a critic asked, '...Of course, the view of the cathedral may be good or charming--but who can see it or appraise it between and beneath the chinks of these black masses?'