[Excavations near the Sphinx]
![[Excavations near the Sphinx] by John Beasley Greene](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/excavations-near-the-sphinx-286665.webp)
Medium
Salted paper print from paper negative
Dimensions
Image: 22.3 x 30.2 cm (8 3/4 x 11 7/8 in.) Mount: 18 11/16 × 24 5/16 in. (47.5 × 61.8 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.276
Tags
About this artwork
John Beasley Greene (1832-1856), a French-born American Egyptologist and pioneering archaeological photographer, created this remarkable salted paper print from a paper negative in 1853 during his first Egyptian expedition at age 21. Greene documented Auguste Mariette's groundbreaking excavations around the Great Sphinx of Giza, becoming possibly the first photographer to record an archaeological dig in progress. The image shows the French tricolor flying from the Sphinx during excavations led b...