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Jerusalem, Valley of Josaphat, Tomb of St. James (Jérusalem, Vallée de Josaphat, Tombeau de Saint Jacques)

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

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  • A work made of salted paper print.

Date:

1854, printed 1856

Artist:

Auguste Salzmann
French, 1824–1872

About this artwork

An amateur archaeologist trained as a painter, Auguste Salzmann learned photography in order to document archaeological finds in the field. He traveled to Jersualem in 1853, photographing holy sites for a year, until he was stricken by fever and forced to return home with some 150 paper negatives. The resulting prints were published in 1856 by the noted printer Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard as a tourist album on the monuments of Jerusalem, available for purchase by the public; in the introduction, Salzmann wrote, “Photographs are not reports, but rather conclusive brute facts.” Despite this assertion, his choice of medium did act as a vehicle of interpretation: the salted paper print gave a somewhat softened, textured appearance to the stone ruins, increasing the suggestion of nostalgia latent in the combination of archeology and tourism.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Auguste Salzmann

Title

Jerusalem, Valley of Josaphat, Tomb of St. James (Jérusalem, Vallée de Josaphat, Tombeau de Saint Jacques)

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 1854

Medium

Salted paper print

Dimensions

Image: 23.4 × 32.2 cm (9 1/4 × 12 11/16 in.); Paper: 41.4 × 58.5 cm (16 5/16 × 23 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by Helen Harvey Mills in memory of her mother Kathleen W. Harvey

Reference Number

1980.215

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/60084/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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