Rue du Caire
1870s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. John L. Swayze, 1981
Accession Number
1981.1194.6
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Rue du Caire** by Félix Bonfils the vibrant pulse of 1870s Cairo in an exquisite albumen silver print from glass negative. Bonfils, a pioneering photographer based in Beirut, traveled extensively across the Middle East, documenting exotic locales with a keen eye for everyday life. This photograph, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Photographs Department (gift of Mrs. John L. Swayze, 1981), immerses viewers in a bustling street scene amid Ottoman-era Egypt, where architectural grandeur met the rhythms of urban commerce. The image teems with energy: towering buildings frame a crowded th...