Place de la Concorde, Paris, c 1865.

A photograph of the Place de la Concorde, Paris, taken by Edouard-Denis Baldus (1813-1882) in about 1865. This is the largest public square in Paris. It was the site of the guillotine used to execute Louis XVI (1754-1793), Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793) and hundreds more during the French Revolution. In the centre of the photograph is an obelisk from the temple of Ramesses II in Thebes. It was one of three obelisks offered by the Viceroy of Egypt to King Louis Philippe (1773-1850), but the only one that was transported to Paris. This is one of a series of photographs by Baldus published in an album entitled, 'Vues de Paris en Photographies'. Trained as a painter, Baldus (1813-1882) was accepted into the Paris Salon in 1842. He was a founding member of the Societe Heliographique in 1851and the Societe Francaise de Photographie in 1857. During the 1850s and 1860s Baldus was one of the most prolific of French photographers. He was commissioned by the Comite des Monuments Historiques to p