This celebrated salt print was formerly in the collection of Viollet-le-Duc. More than anyone else, Le-Duc was responsible for documenting and restoring the ancient buildings, especially churches, of France.

Raw materials for his initiatives were provided by the Mission heliographique. This government-sanctioned project involved five of the most important photographers of the day, namely Bayard, Baldus, Le Secq, Mestral, and Le Gray, who were charged with documenting France's old buildings based on a prescribed list of places. The resulting photographs were intended as evidence of the decline of these buildings and as a means of gaining funding for their restoration. As Le-Duc was entrusted with the restoration projects, his own possessions included a large number of photographs taken by these photographers of the ancient buildings of France, such as the present work which was sold by his heirs in 2002.

The Church of Saint-Trophime was a significant subject for a number of the earliest photographers, including Charles Negre and Em. Pec., as well as Baldus. Constructed in the eleventh and twelfth century, this church is considered one of the finest examples of southern Romanesque style, with additional Gothic cloisters added in the fourteenth century. Its cloisters provided the setting for Negre's famous pictures of nuns and a priest at prayer, as well as two of Baldus' most important photographs of its cloisters based on multiple paper negatives, cut up and assembled.

In this photograph, Baldus has focused on the church's exterior and filled the frame with its striking facade, drawing attention to the portal, which portrays the Last Judgment, and the statues that line its sides, including St. Trophime and St. Stephen, the patron saints of Arles.

Previously, Baldus had presented a similar view using two joined negatives.