Jérusalem, Ornements arabes
Medium
Salted paper print from paper negative
Dimensions
Image: 23.4 x 32.1 cm (9 3/16 x 12 5/8 in.) Mount: 44.8 x 60 cm (17 5/8 x 23 5/8 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.373.158
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1854, French photographer Auguste Salzmann captured the intricate beauty of Jerusalem's Arab ornaments in this salted paper print, titled *Jérusalem, Or arabes*. Produced from a paper negative by the Imprimerie photographique deanquart-Évrard in Lille, the image measures 23.4 x 32.1 cm and exemplifies early calotype photography. This soft-toned process, invented by William Henry Fox Talbot, yielded a painterly quality with subtle gradations, ideal for documenting architectural details lost to time. Salzmann, a physician who turned to photography during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1853...
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 ...