Pyramides de Gizèh
1865–69
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 31.1 x 41.8 cm (12 1/4 x 16 7/16 in.) Mount: 45.9 x 62.5 cm (18 1/16 x 24 5/8 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Robert Shapazian, 2009
Accession Number
2009.440.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, photographer Gustave Le Gray revolutionized landscape photography with his masterful command of light and composition. His *Pyramides de Gizè* (1865–69), an albumen silver from a glass negative, the timeless grandeur of Egypt's Giza pyramids against a vast, luminous sky. Measuring 31.1 x 41.8 cm, this image transports viewers to the ancient wonders, evoking the awe of explorers who ventured to the Nile Valley during height of European fascination with Orientalism. Le Gray's innovation shines here: glass negatives enabled exceptional clarity and tonal depth in albumen ...
About the Artist
Gustave Le Gray · 1820–1884
Gustave Le Gray, born on August 30, 1820, in Villiers-le-Bel near Paris to a prosperous merchant family, pursued his artistic ambitions against his parents' wishes for a legal career. As an only child, he trained as a painter in the studios of François-Édouard Picot and Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts, exhibiting at the Paris Salons in 1848 and 1853. In 1844, he married Palmira Leonardi...