Vue des Pylones du Temple Khons et d'une partie du village de Karnac
May 6, 1850
Medium
Salted paper print from paper negative
Dimensions
Image: 5 1/4 × 8 1/8 in. (13.4 × 20.6 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
2005.100.376.53
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into ancient Egypt through Maxime Du Camp's *Vue des Pylones Temple Khons et d partie du village de Karn*, a salted paper print captured on May 6, 1850. This intimate 5¼ × 8⅛-inch image frames the towering pylons of the Khonsu at Karnak—one of the largest religious complexes in the world—alongside a glimpse of the nearby village. Du Camp, a pioneering French photographer and writer, documented these majestic ruins during his 1849–1850 travels, offering visitors a rare window into pharaonic grandeur amid everyday life. Printed from a paper negative using the calotype process, this photogr...
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...