Convent of Mar-Saba, Near Jerusalem
1857
Medium
Albumen print, pl. 11 from the album "Egypt and Palestine, Volume II" (1858/60)
Dimensions
Image/paper: 16.5 × 23.1 cm (6 1/2 × 9 1/8 in.); Album page: 29.2 × 42.6 cm (11 1/2 × 16 13/16 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
157980
Art Historical Context
Step into the sun-baked Judean desert with Francis Frith's *Convent of Mar-Saba Near Jerusalem* (1857), an albumen silver print from landmark album *Egypt and Palestine Volume II* (185/60). British photographer and publisher Frith, a pioneer of travel photography, ventured into the Holy Land during the mid-19th century, capturing ancient sites with remarkable clarity. This image, plate 11, the historic Mar Saba monastery—a fortress-like Orthodox Christian enclave founded in the 5th century by Saint Sabbas—perched dramatically amid rugged cliffs overlooking the Kidron Valley, just south of Jeru...
About the Artist
Francis Frith · 1822–1898
Francis Frith (1822–1898) was born on 7 October 1822 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, into a prosperous Quaker merchant family as the second child and only son of Francis Frith Sr. and Alice Walker. Educated at Quaker schools including Ackworth and Camp Hill in Birmingham from around 1828 to 1838, he apprenticed in the cutlery trade before establishing himself as a wholesale grocer in Liverpool, suppl...