Palace Algeria
Medium
Waxed paper negative
Dimensions
Image: 28.2 × 38.6 cm (11 1/8 × 15 1/4 in.); Paper: 28.9 × 39.1 cm (11 7/16 × 15 7/16 in.)
Classification
photography
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
154271
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
A talented amateur with an aristocratic upbringing, Gustave de Beaucorps began photographing his extensive travels in the mid-1850s. His studies of the architecture, landscapes, and people of Algeria—which France had invaded in 1830—tapped into a public fascination with Orientalist depictions of the Middle East and North Africa. De Beaucorps employed paper negatives, then the preferred technology for photographing architecture. Because enlarging was not yet practicable (prints were made by conta...