The Rameseum of El-Kurneh, Thebes
1857
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 37.9 x 47.7 cm (14 15/16 x 18 3/4 in.) Mount: 59.9 × 73.8 cm (23 9/16 in. × 29 1/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Anonymous Gifts, by exchange, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.633
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the sun-baked grandeur of ancient Egypt through Francis Frith's *The Rameseum of Elurneh, Thebes* (1857), anen silver print that captures the majestic ruins of Ramses II's mortuary temple near Luxor. Frith, a pioneering British photographer, ventured into Egypt during the mid-19th century, hauling his cumbersome glass-plate camera to document these timeless wonders. Amid crumbling columns and vast courtyards, local men tend to camels and donkeys, blending everyday life with monumental history in a scene alive with texture and scale. This 37.9 x 47.7 cm image exemplifies the albumen ...
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...