Vue de l'île d'Eléphantine, en face d'Assouan
April 17, 1850
Medium
Salted paper print from paper negative
Dimensions
Image: 5 11/16 × 8 11/16 in. (14.4 × 22 cm) Mount: 12 5/16 × 18 11/16 in. (31.2 × 47.5 cm) Frame: 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.376.96
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the sun-drenched Nile of 19th-century Egypt with Maxime Du Camp's *Vue de l'île d'Elphantine, en face'Assouan*, captured on April 17, 1850. This salted paper print from a paper negative offers a serene landscape view of Elephantine Island opposite Aswan, likely featuring the river's gentle flow, traditional boats, and the island's ancient contours. Du Camp, a pioneering French photographer and writer, made this image during his 1849–1850 travels with Gustave Flaubert, Egypt's timeless wonders. As one of the earliest photographs of the region, it exemplifies the calotype process—Talb...
About the Artist
Maxime Du Camp · 1822–present
Maxime Du Camp (1822–1894) was a pioneering French photographer and writer whose adventurous spirit and technical innovation bridged literature and visual art during the mid-19th century. Born in Paris on February 8, 1822, to a prosperous family—his father a successful surgeon—Du Camp received a solid bourgeois education at the Collège Bourbon (now Lycée Condorcet), where he cultivated interests i...