Large Speos - View taken from the Sand Slope (Temple of Ramesses II), Abu Simbel (1851–52): Art, History and Details

Large Speos - View taken from the Sand Slope (Temple of Ramesses II), Abu Simbel (1851–52) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Félix Teynard (French, 1817–1892).

The work and its context

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

While other images of Abu Simbel by Teynard, Maxime Du Camp, and Antonio Beato emphasize the massive scale of the two temples carved into the rocks, this view by Teynard sets the colossal sculptures into the context of the large cliffs and vast expanses of desert. Like the temple at Philae,the temple complex at Abu Simbel was relocated in 1968 to prevent its submersion beneath the lake formed by the Aswan High Dam. This view no longer exists.

Object facts

• Title: Large Speos - View taken from the Sand Slope (Temple of Ramesses II), Abu Simbel
• Date: 1851–52
• Creator attribution: Félix Teynard (French, 1817–1892)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: salted paper print from calotype negative
• Dimensions: Image: 23.9 x 30.8 cm (9 7/16 x 12 1/8 in.); Paper: 37.8 x 50.3 cm (14 7/8 x 19 13/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1992.234

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Teynard, Félix. Égypte et Nubie: sites et monuments, les plus interessants pour l'étude de l'art et de l'histoire : atlas photographie. Paris: Goupil, 1983.
• Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1992." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (1993): 38-79.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.

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.