Jérusalem, Côté Nord de Jérusalem

Art Historical Context

In 1854, French photographer Auguste Salzmann capturedJérusalem, Côté Nord deusalem*, a poignant salted paper print from a paper, depicting the rugged north side of Jerusalem's ancient walls and landscape. Produced by the innovative Imprimerie photographique Blanquart-Évrard in Lille, this image measures 22.8 x 32.6 cm and exemplifies early calotype photography, where a paper negative allowed for multiple prints with a soft, painterly quality that blurred the line between drawing and realism. Salzmann's work holds immense historical significance as one of the first photographic documentations of Jerusalem's sacred sites, created during a French expedition in the 1850s amid growing European fascination with the Holy Land. The salted paper process, refined by Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Évrard, enabled affordable dissemination of such views, bridging art and archaeology. This print, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection, invites visitors to witness a timeless cityscape frozen in time, revealing architectural details lost to later changes and underscoring photography's power to preserve cultural heritage.

About the Artist

Auguste Salzmann|Imprimerie photographique de Blanquart-Évrard, à Lille · 1824–1872

Born 15 april 1824. Salzmann travelled to Palestine in 1850 to 1851 as a draughtsman for a French expedition to the East. Salzmann returned to Paris, France in 1851 and learned photography which he used as an aid to his archaeological research. In 1853 Salzmann was commissioned by the Ministry of Public Instruction to visit Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and the islands of the Archipelago to photograph ...