An uncropped version of one of Regnault's most famous images.

The present work is one of Regnault's most well known images. It was selected and printed by Blanquart-Evrard for inclusion in the album Etudes Photographiques (c.1852, 2nd series no. 205) and a reproduction of one of these prints was used as the frontispiece of the most important study of early French photography, Jammes and Janes, The Art of the French Calotype.

However, the present unmounted work differs from the published version, almost certainly having been printed by Regnault himself prior to its publication by Blanquart-Evrard. In marked contrast to Blanquart-Evrards' heavy, contrasty prints, the present work has more subtle tonal values and delicate coloration characteristic of the majority of prints produced by Regnault himself. Both its soft mid tones and coloration are characteristic of most of Regnault's own prints, such as those in the collection of the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, and not the consequence of later fading.

The present work also differs from the Blanquart-Evrard version by showing the full image without the cropping of the four corners to be found in the published print.

In her monograph on Regnault, Laurie Dahlberg writes of the 'sense of optimism and security seen in The Ladder:

'The pleasures of country life are celebrated in The Ladder, which was photographed in the grounds of the Manufacture de Sevres in a quiet corner between the stable and the porter's lodge. The precise vertical division of the picture into two perfect halves of shadow and light imposes order upon the piquant disarray of the scene. Humble objects of rustic labor lean or hang upon the bright, rough plaster wall of the cottage: a handmade ladder, a wicker basket, a fowl cage, some cask bands, a workman's sabot. A vine is trained along the corner of the building and the silhouetted leaves of an unseen tree dip down into the picture space. The paper surface of the calotype negative renders these things in their pleasing, varied texture; their signification as objects of use adds a layer of sentimental content to the visual pleasure...He was new to country living when he made this picture, and the lush, sometimes precious views he made that first season suggest he revelled in the change of scenery from city to country. The sunny, peaceful atmosphere of the Ladder speaks in evangelical tones for the simple rustic life. Nature is represented as self-renewing and through the tools of husbandry, man is implied as the contented cultivator of this nature.' (Dahlberg, pp. 161-167)