Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
General View of Monuments Carved into Bedrock with Photographer's Dahabieh. Abu Simbel
About the Artwork
Teynard, a civil engineer, may have learned photography for his 1851–52 tour of Egypt, which he undertook “to study certain questions of personal interest.” In 1858 he published his photographic record of ancient sites, the most comprehensive to date, as a book of salted paper prints. Teynard traveled by dahabieh, a small passenger boat visible in this image. He asked his readers to grant some indulgence for photographers carrying out such painstaking work in an arduous locale like Egypt. “A nomad, his working method is always provisional, and the delicate preparations for his photography must be carried out on a small sailing boat rocking in the water, or under a tent standing in the midst of the desert.”
Inscriptions
Written in pencil on verso: "300731.4"
Provenance
French book dealer; Hans P. Kraus, Jr., New York; Cleveland Museum of Art
Exhibition history
Pyramids & Sphinxes: Views of Egypt. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-May 24, 2016).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Félix Teynard (French, 1817–1892)
- Date
- 1851–1852
- Medium
- salted paper print from a paper negative
- Dimensions
- Image: 24.8 x 30.9 cm (9 3/4 x 12 3/16 in.); Paper: 26.7 x 35.5 cm (10 1/2 x 14 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
- Type
- Photograph
- Classification
- Photograph
- Department
- Photography
- Credit line
- Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund
- Accession no.
- 2010.268
More by Félix Teynard in museum collections
First Pylon - French Inscription Carved on the Eastern Embrasure at Point H, Island of Fila (Philae)
Félix Teynard1851/52 · Photograph
Large Speos - View taken from the Sand Slope (Temple of Ramesses II), Abu Simbel
Félix Teynard1851–52 · Photograph
Sphinxes with a Human Head and with a Ram Head at Point Y. Karnak (Thebes)
Félix Teynard1851–52 · 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-00013026
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