id: 156525 accession number: 1992.236 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.236 updated: 2021-01-15 10:06:55.246000 Egypt, Sinai and Jerusalem: A Series of Twenty Photographic Views, with Descriptions by Mrs. Poole and Reginald Stuart Poole: Fallen Statue at the Ramesseum, Thebes, 1857. Francis Frith (British, 1822-1898). Albumen print from wet collodion negative; image: 38.3 x 48.2 cm (15 1/16 x 19 in.); matted: 61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1992.236 title: Fallen Statue at the Ramesseum, Thebes title in original language: series: Egypt, Sinai and Jerusalem: A Series of Twenty Photographic Views, with Descriptions by Mrs. Poole and Reginald Stuart Poole series in original language: creation date: 1857 creation date earliest: 1857 creation date latest: 1857 current location: creditline: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund copyright: --- culture: England;England, 19th century technique: albumen print from wet collodion negative department: Photography collection: PH - British 19th Century type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Francis Frith (British, 1822-1898) - artist Francis Frith British, 1822-1898 Francis Frith, best known for his views of Egypt and the Middle East, was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. A Quaker, he attended Ackworth School and Quaker Camp Hill School in Birmingham (about 1828-38), then apprenticed in a Sheffield cutlery house before working in a wholesale grocery business. He began photographing in 1850 and three years later helped to found the Liverpool Photographic Society. In 1856 Frith embarked on an extensive tour of Egypt, traveling up the Nile from Cairo to Abu Simbel, and returning in July 1857. Inspired by this journey's success, that November he traveled again to Egypt and the Holy Land for about six months. During a third trip, in 1859-60, he voyaged up the Nile to the Sixth Cataract, farther than any photographer before him. These excursions were difficult; besides the desert heat, sand, and flies, the wet collodion process used by Frith meant traveling with numerous crates filled with cameras, chemicals, and darkroom equipment. The firm of Frith & Co. was established at Reigate, Surrey, in 1860, becoming one of the most important publishers of European topographic and architectural views. It continued under the direction of his descendants for well over a century. Previously, Frith's large views had been published in London by Thomas Agnew & Sons, and James S. Virtue, and his stereographs by Negretti & Zambra. Frith's 1876 catalog included more than 4,000 views, and his works and travelogue were assembled into several albums, which sold well as souvenirs and to armchair travelers. Many of the photographs certainly were taken by operators working for him. However, a number of Frith's prints, especially his large glass plate views of Egypt and the Middle East, still astonish with their grandeur of vision. T.W.F. * William Mackenzie - publisher --- measurements: Image: 38.3 x 48.2 cm (15 1/16 x 19 in.); Matted: 61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in black ink on recto of mount: "Frith, Photo. 1857"; "The RAMESEUM of EL-KURNAH / Thebes - First View" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Nineteenth Century Views of Egypt opening date: 1992-05-19T04:00:00 Nineteenth Century Views of Egypt. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-September 9, 1992). title: Selected Acquisitions opening date: 1993-02-09T05:00:00 Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993). title: Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 1996-11-24T05:00:00 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). title: Pyramids & Sphinxes: Views of Egypt opening date: 2016-02-06T00:00:00 Pyramids & Sphinxes: Views of Egypt. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 6-May 24, 2016). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Janet Lehr Fine Arts, East Hampton, NY) date: footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: December 7, 1992 footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: Overcoming both physical dangers and technical difficulties, Francis Frith traveled to obscure regions of the world to capture exotic images for an eager Victorian audience. Taken on the second of three trips to Egypt, this photograph was created with a mammoth plate (typically an 18-x-22-inch glass negative), which enabled the artist to capture the smallest details of a scene. Here Frith conveyed the monumentality of the ancient Egyptian sculpture by including members of his expedition in the picture. The image was published in an album containing 20 mammoth-plate views, the only published volume of Frith's large photographs and one of the first devoted to large-scale prints. wall description: This mammoth print conveys the epic scale of the memorial temple of Ramesses the Great while disclosing its smallest details, such as tourist graffiti on the head of the fallen statue. Upon arrival, these tourists might have pondered Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 1818 epic poem Ozymandias about these ruins. The fallen ruler’s portrait urges visitors to “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” One wonders how personally European tourists took this warning about the power of time to topple mighty empires. Perhaps unconsciously, Frith’s image suggests the colonial relationship between the tourists and their Egyptian guides and servants. For the Europeans, the image is proof and a souvenir, like a modern snapshot. The Egyptians are props in someone else’s adventure. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1992." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (1993): 38-79. page number: p. 68, no. 97, repr. p. 47 url: www.jstor.org/stable/25161388 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1992.236/1992.236_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1992.236/1992.236_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1992.236/1992.236_full.tif