Plaza Constitución. Buenos Aires. Circa 1895.

Vintage photographic print on albumen paper. sepia tone Loose work. Measurements: 18 x 24 cm. Reference: At the foot of the image and on the intervened glass negative, the title and authorship of the work are located in capital letters: "Estación Constitución. A. W. B & C." It is displayed framed. Work in good condition.

By the time this remarkable urban view of Buenos Aires was released, the Argentine photographer and editor -of English descent- Arturo Wood Boote (1861-1936) was already such a nationally acclaimed figure that he could afford to sign the works of him with the initials. Together with his older brother Samuel Boote (1844-1921), they are considered the most prolific editors of urban and rural views of Argentina during the 19th century.

The building that concerns us constitutes one of the neuralgic points of that nineteenth-century Buenos Aires and, in order to describe it visually, Arturo had to go up with his voluminous plate camera to the "Gran Rocalla" or 10-meter-high grotto built by Courtois , erected in the center of the remodeled Plaza Constitución during the year 1885.

The view encompasses in its foreground the old Plaza de las Carretas, designed according to the urban aspirations of the so-called "Generation of '80" and, in the background, the monumental architecture of Constitución Station. On the square we will say that the work of a landscape architect is clearly perceived, with its comfortable white wooden benches, high-columned lampposts, and the picturesque lake surrounded by trees, pedestrian paths and flower beds.

In relation to the terminal station of the old Ferrocarril del Sud, we will say that it was inaugurated in 1889 according to plans by the English architects Parr, Strong & Parr of London and, it is presumed, that the layout would have a similarity with the French castle of Maisons -Laffitte, with its "eclectic neo-Renaissance Victorian" style, the classic mansard roofs and the large central clock marking British punctuality. Due to its documentary importance, this photograph was included in the book "Argentina at the end of the 19th century - Photographs of Samuel and Arturo Boote" (p. 59) by the authors Abel Alexander and Luis Priamo.

Abel Alexander

President of the Ibero-American Society for the History of Photography