Obelisk and Granite Lotus Column, Karnac
1857
Medium
Albumen print, pl. 27 from the album "Egypt and Palestine, Volume I" (1858)
Dimensions
Image/paper: 23.7 × 14.5 cm (9 3/8 × 5 3/4 in.); Album page: 42.6 × 29.4 cm (16 13/16 × 11 5/8 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
157959
Art Historical Context
Step into the majestic ruins of Karnak with Francis Frith's *Obelisk and Granite Lotus Column, Karnac* (1857), an exquisite albumen print from his groundbreaking album *Egypt and Palestine Volume I* (1858). Captured at the vast temple complex in Luxor, Egypt—once the heart of ancient Theban worship—this image frames a towering obelisk beside a intricately carved granite lotus column, symbols of pharaonic power and rebirth. Frith, a pioneering British photographer, ventured into Egypt's deserts during the mid-19th century, producing some of the first detailed photographic records of these wonde...
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...