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View of Luxor
About the Artwork
On the first of three trips to Egypt, John Beasley Greene created some 200 photographs. His work rarely documented favorite tourist sites in a conventionally descriptive manner; rather, he concentrated on poetic landscapes and archaeologically significant monuments. In this haunting photograph of Luxor, Greene's ability to depict expansive pictorial space is clearly evident. By surrounding the low, blocklike forms of the site's architecture with large vistas of vacant desert and sky, he emphasized a feeling of isolation and abandonment.
Inscriptions
Written on negative: "43", "J.B. Greene"; written in pencil on recto: "Vue de Luxor"; "7 [underlined]"; "43"
Exhibition history
Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997). Pyramids & Sphinxes: Views of Egypt. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-May 24, 2016).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- John Beasley Greene (American, 1832–1856)
- Date
- 1854
- Medium
- salted paper print from waxed paper negative
- Dimensions
- Image: 23 x 30.5 cm (9 1/16 x 12 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
- Type
- Photograph
- Classification
- Photograph
- Department
- Photography
- Credit line
- The A. W. Ellenberger, Sr., Endowment Fund
- Accession no.
- 1995.34
More by John Beasley Greene in museum collections
Tombeau de la chrétienne. Vue du côté nord. (Tomb of the Christian Woman. View of the North Side.)
John Beasley Greene1855 · Photograph
Medinet Habu, Mortuary Temple of Ramses III, Left Wall (Médinet-Habou, Temple funéraire de Ramsès III, paroi gauche
John Beasley Greene1854 · Photograph
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00012983
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