Portrait, Turkish Summer Costume
1857
Medium
Albumen print, pl. 1 from the album "Egypt and Palestine, Volume I" (1858)
Dimensions
Image/paper, oval: 18.3 × 14.4 cm (7 1/4 × 5 11/16 in.); 29.3 × 42.6 cm (11 9/16 × 16 13/16 in.); Album page: 29.3 × 42.6 cm (11 1/2 × 16 3/4 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
11287
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, photographer Francis Frith embarked on groundbreaking expeditions to document the landscapes and peoples of Egypt, Palestine, and the broader Middle East. *Portrait, Turkish Summer Costume (1857), the opening plate from his acclaimed album *Egypt and Palestine Volume I* (1858), captures a subject dressed in lightweight Ottoman-era attire suited for warm climates—flowing robes and headwear evoking the region's cultural elegance. Frith's work exemplifies early travel photography, blending portraiture with ethnographic curiosity during the height of European Orientalism. Printed as an albumen silver print, this oval image (18.3 × 14.4 cm) showcases the medium's hallmark: a glossy surface from egg-white emulsion that yields rich tonal depth and fine detail, ideal for reproducing intricate fabrics and expressions. Mounted on a larger album page (29.3 × 42.6 cm), it invited Victorian viewers into distant worlds through affordable, portable luxury. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media department, this piece highlights Frith's pioneering role in commercial photography. His multi-volume albums sold widely, shaping Western perceptions of the "exotic" East while preserving vanishing traditions amid imperial changes. A window into 1850s cultural exchange, it reminds us how images bridged continents long before mass tourism.
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...