Angle d'Une Cour Intérieure de la Grande Pagode
1866
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
22.7 x 17.7cm (8 15/16 x 6 15/16in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.501 (34)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Emile Gsell’s 1866 photograph, “Angle d’Une Cour Intérieure de la Grande Pagode,” offers a quiet glimpse into the architectural splendor of a grand pagoda. Captured from an interior courtyard angle, the image highlights the intricate details of traditional Asian architecture, with its layered roofs and ornate structural elements. As part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Photographs collection, this work stands as a valuable record of cultural heritage preserved through early photographic means. The albumen silver print from a glass negative was a leading technique of the mid-nineteenth cen...
About the Artist
Emile Gsell · 1838–1879
Emile Gsell (1838–1879) was a French photographer who became one of the earliest Western photographers to document Southeast Asia, particularly the ancient temples of Angkor in Cambodia. Born in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines in Alsace, France, Gsell traveled to Indochina in the 1860s, establishing a photographic studio in Saigon (present-day Ho Chi Minh City) that became a base for his documentary expedi...