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First Pylon - French Inscription Carved on the Eastern Embrasure at Point H, Island of Fila (Philae)

A work made of salted paper print.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of salted paper print.

Date:

1851/52

Artist:

Félix Teynard
French, 1817–1892

About this artwork

Félix Teynard was one of several artists and scholars who flocked to Egypt to employ the new medium of photography to document ancient sites and complex hieroglyphics ripe for study. Originally trained as a civil engineer, he offered his services to the French Academy of Sciences in 1851, and by the end of that year he had set sail southward on the Nile. Between 1851 and 1852, Teynard made an extensive record of the Nile valley, ultimately producing 160 salted paper prints covering one thousand miles on the river. This photograph shows, along with hieroglyphics, a stone inscription made in March 1799 by Napoleonic troops after their defeat of local Egyptian forces. Others, presumably locals as well, had subsequently defaced the monument, and a French traveler had added one last layer of commentary before Teynard’s picture, incising in colonialist reply: “A PAGE OF HISTORY SHOULD NOT BE SULLIED.”

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Félix Teynard

Title

First Pylon - French Inscription Carved on the Eastern Embrasure at Point H, Island of Fila (Philae)

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1851–1852

Medium

Salted paper print

Dimensions

23.9 × 30.7 cm (image); 38 × 50 (paper)

Credit Line

The Mary and Leigh Block Endowment Fund

Reference Number

1996.89

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/144599/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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