Félix Teynard
1851-1852 (taken) 1853-1854 (print)
Béni-Haçan, Architecture Hypogéene - Tombeau d'Amoneï

Salted paper print, from paper negative
24.5 x 30.3 cm (9 5/8 x 11 15/16 ins)
 
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1976, Accession Number: 1976.607.13
 
Curatorial description (accessed: 16 March 2017)
This photograph is a masterpiece of the genre. It represents a Middle Kingdom rock-cut tomb at Beni Hasan (ca. 1900 B.C.), 105 miles upriver from Cairo. Within the bold composition of light and dark, Teynard placed the delicate form of a European bentwood cane against the column. Like a surveyor's measure, the cane indicates scale. It also functions as Teynard's personal signature, but unlike the graffiti to the right, it was temporary and did not deface the monument.
 
LL/73880