Grande Pagode - Tour Nord du 2e Etage
1866
Medium
Albumen silver prints from glass negatives
Dimensions
24.2 x 17 cm (9 1/2 x 6 11/16 in.)
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 (40)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Captured in 1866 by French photographer Emile Gsell, *Grande Pagode - Tour Nord du 2e Etage* offers a striking view of the northern tower on the second level of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Gsell, one of the earliest European photographers to document the ancient Khmer monuments, traveled through Southeast Asia during a period of growing French interest in the region. His image highlights the temple’s intricate stone carvings and towering architecture, preserving a moment when these ruins were still being rediscovered by the outside world. The work is an albumen silver print made from a glass nega...
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...