The photographer Charles Marville was born in 1813 in Paris, the city that would later be the focus of his work. Originally trained as a painter, illustrator, lithographer and wood engraver, Marville illustrated books and magazines, mostly with depictions of landscapes and architecture. It was only in 1850 that he began to take photographs. In the following years he published collections with countless photos from his travels. In the late 1850s he was contracted by the city of Paris to document in photographs the modernisation of the city being carried out by Baron Haussmann, and his works serve as historical documentation of the older Paris. He subsequently worked on thematic series in and around the city, some of them in collaboration with architects like Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Marville died in Paris in 1879.
