COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0000171
image_record_id
aahi0000171
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Eiffel Tower
Image Title:
full view from west
Work Dates (display):
1887-1899
Work Dates type:
creation
Work Creator (display):
Gustave Eiffel (French, 1832-1923)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
French engineer and writer. He began his advanced studies at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris in 1850 but failed examinations during his first year; he subsequently enrolled at the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, where he earned a diploma in chemical engineering. In 1856 he received his first major engineering commission, the iron railway bridge (completed 1860) over the River Garonne at Bordeaux. Aged only 26, he was given total control of the project; his use of compressed air to drive the pier foundations was an early application in France of this new technology. His lifelong concern for close site supervision was also already in evidence on this project: when the bridge was finished in 1860, the workers were so grateful for Eiffel's personal involvement that they presented him with a medal. At the end of 1866 Eiffel established his own company at Levallois-Perret on the outskirts of Paris. Much of the most profitable work produced by the company over the next several decades was in small, demountable bridges that were widely exported, especially to Indo-China and South America. For the Exposition Universelle of 1867 in Paris, Eiffel displayed his talent for more complicated engineering problems by preparing a complete set of calculations for the span of the Galerie des Machines, one of the first such studies on arch behaviour. Between 1867 and 1869 he completed four large-scale viaducts in southern France, one of the most important being the viaduct over the River Sioule, where two iron towers 59 m high support the structure from the valley below. The towers, which are tapered to compensate more efficiently for wind resistance, were early structural precursors of the famous Eiffel Tower completed 20 years later. In the 1870s Eiffel's firm took on increasingly ambitious and demanding projects, many of them outside France. A rare example of monumental architecture in his career was the central station (1875) in Pest (now Budapest) commissioned by the Austrian State Railways. This station departed significantly from general custom in leaving a considerable portion of the metal structural elements exposed on the façade. For the commission of the Ponte Doña Maria I, a bridge over the River Douro in Oporto, Eiffel's company prevailed over several larger competitors because, with his design making much more efficient use of materials, he could greatly underbid them. Eiffel, who again supervised all work on the site, used five piers of varying length and a central parabolic arch of 160 m span to support a continuous girder 353 m long. Completed in 1877, the Douro bridge was then the largest non-suspension bridge in the world. Its design was repeated in many of Eiffel's later structures, the most significant being the Garabit railway viaduct (completed 1884) over the River Truyère south of Clermont-Ferrand. Here the route was over an unusually deep valley with difficult terrain; the tallest of the supporting piers is 89 m high and the span of the central arch 165 m. Although still specializing primarily in bridges and viaducts, Eiffel began to work in several other areas of design in the 1870s. In 1875 he built a large church with a cast-iron framework in Tacna, Peru. In 1878 he was a major contributor to the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where he was responsible for the structural design of the pavilion of the city of Paris, and of the iron and glass entrance vestibule on the façade of the main Champ-de-Mars complex. The delicate transparency of its central dome paralleled similar cage constructions executed by Eiffel for the Banque Crédit Lyonnais (1877), Boulevard des Italiens, and the Bon Marché department store (186776; see Boileau, (1)), Rue du Bac, both Paris. He also proposed a covered gallery above the Pont d'Iéna on the Seine to link the two groups of exposition buildings, but this plan was ultimately abandoned as being too expensive. Aware of Eiffel's expertise in the study of wind resistance, the sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi asked him to design an armature for his Statue of Liberty, New York, in 1881; Eiffel's solution was a variation on the design of the tall iron towers he had employed in his earlier bridges and viaducts. In 1885 Eiffel designed the rotating hemispherical dome for the Nice Observatory, the first major structure in France to employ steel as the primary material. The 300 m iron tower (see fig.) that became the architectural centrepiece for the Exposition Universelle in Paris of 1889 was probably first conceived by Eiffel's young assistant, the Swiss engineer Maurice Koechlin (18561946). Without Eiffel's experience, influence and initiative, however, the tower would certainly never have been built. Although based on Eiffel's earlier viaduct pier designs, this tower required much more complicated calculations and construction methods. The vast number of working drawings, prepared under Koechlin's supervision, were extremely precise, making it possible to assemble the prefabricated components on site with virtually no modification. A group of four pivoting cranes was specially built to hoist the components into position. Eiffel's customary attention to questions of wind resistance was reflected in the complex masonry foundations and the hydraulic presses that compensated for shifting in each leg of the tower. Completed on 31 March 1889, the tower, which now bears Eiffel's name, took 26 months to build but never required more than 250 workmen on the site. During the seven months of the exposition, the tower received nearly two million visitors. Along with his many engineering triumphs, Eiffel also experienced some major disappointments. The Panama Canal Company, which commissioned Eiffel to construct ten locks, fell into financial ruin in 1889, and although he was ultimately vindicated, Eiffel himself was implicated in the flood of litigation that followed. His practical plans for a low-cost underground railway system for Paris, presented in 1890, were ignored, as was his somewhat more adventurous plan of the same year for an underwater tunnel across the English Channel. In his later years Eiffel increasingly devoted himself to theoretical studies of wind resistance, meteorology and aerodynamics, frequently using the Eiffel Tower as a site for his experiments. In 1912 he established an experimental laboratory at Auteuil, where he continued to work until 1920. (Grove Art Online Accessed 2006-07-26)
Work Style Period:
Victorian Structural Expressionist
work_styleperiod
Victorian Structural Expressionist
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
19th century
work_styleperiod
19th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
watchtowers
subject
watchtowers
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
towers (single built works)
subject
towers (single built works)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
exhibitions
subject
exhibitions
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
Paris World's Fair (1889)
subject
Paris World's Fair (1889)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
Exposition universelle de 1889 (Paris, France)
subject
Exposition universelle de 1889 (Paris, France)
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
towers (single built works)
work_type
towers (single built works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Worktype:
architecture (object genre)
work_type
architecture (object genre)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
architecture
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
architecture
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
structural iron, painted
Work Location (Geographic) name:
Paris, France
Image Rights (display):
© Ronald Wiedenhoeft. Licensed for educational use via Scholars Resource: Saskia, Ltd.
Image Rights license agreement:
SASKIA, LTD.: WHO CAN USE THIS SOFTWARE: (a) Licensee, including faculty, staff and currently enrolled students may use the Licensed Software to display and or print the corresponding graphic images without limitation for teaching and research purposes at the defined Sites, or at remote locations having electronic access to your Site(s). (b) This license include permission to use the Licensed Software on a multi-user network at the defined Site, and to permit remote access to a computer/server located at your Site. Simultaneous display in multiple locations at or connected to the Site is also permitted. (c) Licensee agrees to employ reasonable security measures designed to limit access to your faculty, staff and currently enrolled students. PROHIBITED USES AND LIMITATIONS: (a) Saskia hereby reserves all rights not expressly granted herein. (b) the License Software may not be used for preparaiton of any publication, scholarly or otherwise; or for any purpose other than teaching or research. Publication of an image from the Licensed Software requires a separate license from Saskia. (c) Licensee agrees not to resell, lease, transfer, sub-license or otherwise distribute a copy of the Licensed Software, or any image taken from the Licensed Software, in whole or in part. (d) Licensee also agrees not to modify, corrupt or alter any digital image graphic content or "digital watermark" or the like in the software provided by Saskia under this Agreement. (e) Licensee agrees not to remove, alter, cover or distort Saskia's copyright notice, trademark, or other proprietary rights notice placed by Saskia in the Licensed Software itself, or in the associated packaging, media or documentation. (f) And Licensee agrees to notify users of the Licensed Software, in writing or by sign-on screen display, of their obligations under this Agreement and solicit their cooperation and compliance with such obligations.
Work Rights (display):
public domain
Terms of Agreement and Conditions of Use:
YOU AGREE: Luna Imaging's Insight Software and the digital image collection associated with it (the Software) are being provided by the University of Colorado under the following license. By obtaining, using, and/or copying this work, you (the Licensee) agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions. 1. The Software contains the University of Colorado's Department of Art and Art History's implementation of a digital image collection; 2. Any images obtained through use of the Software will be used only for non-profit, educational purposes; 3. The use of images obtained through the software will only be used while the Licensee is either: a) an employee of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver, or b) an enrolled student at the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver; 4. When the Licensee is no longer an employee or student of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or Community College of Denver, either by an action of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or the Community College of Denver or due to actions of the Licensee, the licensee will cease to use any images exported from the Department of Art and Art History's digital image collection; 5. The Licensee agrees to indemnify the University for claims and liability arising out of the use of the Software or for any violations of this license; 6. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SUPPLIES THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
CU Copyright Statement:
The contents of the University of Colorado Digital Library are available for your use in research, teaching, and private study. Some of these items are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and some items may have additional restrictions. If you use the items in this collection, make sure you abide by any restrictions stated in the descriptive data window. The nature of these collections often makes it difficult to determine the copyright status of an item. We have made every effort to provide information about copyright owners and other restrictions in the descriptive data window. Ultimately, however, it is your responsibility to use the item according to the terms governing its use. If you are a copyright holder and the information is either not listed or listed incorrectly, please let us know so that we can update the information on our site.
Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Center
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see . For specific questions, suggestions, or corrections about the descriptive data for images, contact aahvrc@colorado.edu. Please include the Image Record ID ('aahi' followed by a 7-digit number) for each image in question.