Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville (c. 1867–78): Art, History and Details

Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville (c. 1867–78) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Félix Bonfils (French, 1831–1885).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

French photographer Félix Bonfils settled with his wife and child in Beirut in 1867 and opened a photography studio which his family continued to operate until 1918. Their offerings included landscapes and cityscapes, portraits, and posed scenes including examples of Middle Eastern dress such as this one, which shows the full-body and face veils worn in public by some, although not all, Muslim women in public in Beirut.

Object facts

• Title: Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville
• Date: c. 1867–78
• Creator attribution: Félix Bonfils (French, 1831–1885)
• Culture: France
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: Albumen print from glass plate negative
• Dimensions: Image: 38.1 x 48.3 cm (15 x 19 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2021.207

A detail from the museum

Many Westerners found the full veils worn by Muslim women in mid-nineteenth-century Beirut both fascinating and disturbing.

Collection credit

Gift of William and Margaret Lipscomb

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.