Southern Portion of the Rock-cut Temple of Hathor, Abu Simbel (1850): Art, History and Details

Southern Portion of the Rock-cut Temple of Hathor, Abu Simbel (1850) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Maxime Du Camp (French, 1822–1894).

The work and its context

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

Du Camp was the first photographer to depict the marvels of ancient Egypt. In 1849 a scholarly association commissioned the young writer to document Egyptian monuments and their hieroglyphics. He learned to photograph shortly before embarking for Egypt in the company of the young novelist Gustave Flaubert. In 1852 Du Camp published an album of photographs of Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, and Syria, which brought him widespread recognition. Just as Du Camp followed in the footsteps of earlier painters and scholars, later photographers like Beato often echoed his choices of subject matter.

Object facts

• Title: Southern Portion of the Rock-cut Temple of Hathor, Abu Simbel
• Date: 1850
• Creator attribution: Maxime Du Camp (French, 1822–1894)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: salted paper print from calotype negative, Blanquart-Évrard process
• Dimensions: Image: 16.5 x 21.5 cm (6 1/2 x 8 7/16 in.); Paper: 29.5 x 37.5 cm (11 5/8 x 14 3/4 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1989.53

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• E. H. T. "The Year in Review: Selections 1989." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 2 (1990): 38-78.
• 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.