59. Plan et details, Château d’Alep
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 22 3/8 × 15 5/8 in. (56.9 × 39.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Joyce F. Menschel Photography Library Fund, 2017
Accession Number
2017.66.11
Art Historical Context
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey created this striking lithograph in 1843 during his pioneering travels through the Middle East. A French artist and early photographer, he meticulously documented Islamic architecture, and this sheet presents both an overall plan and close-up details of Aleppo’s historic citadel. Produced just a few years after the invention of photography, the work reflects the era’s growing fascination with precise visual records of distant cultures. Printed as a lithograph on a generous sheet measuring roughly 22 by 16 inches, the image combines measured architectural dr...
About the Artist
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey · 1804–1892
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804–1892), born in Langres, France, as the sole surviving child of Claude Joseph Girault and Barbe Philiberte Rosine Piétrequin, inherited the lordships of Genevrières and Prangey, adopting his full surname in 1825. After studies at Langres college and in Paris, where he earned baccalauréats in letters (1826) and law (1828), he pursued artistic training under ...