Isamboul, colosse oriental du Speos de Phre
Maxime Du Camp
French, 1822–1894
c. 1850
A mid-19th-century calotype by Maxime Du Camp that records one of the colossal seated pharaonic statues at the Speos of Phre (Abu Simbel), aiming to document an ancient monument with both visual dignity and archaeological care.
The photograph confronts you with monumental scale—the carved pharaoh fills the frame, its calm, worn features modelled by strong side light and the calotype’s soft grain while a tiny human figure at the knee makes the statue’s enormity unmistakable.
An early example of travel and archaeological photography, this work helped introduce European audiences to distant antiquities and demonstrated photography’s power as a tool for documentation, scholarship, and visual persuasion.
Medium
Calotype
Dimensions
8 5/16 × 6 5/16" (21.1 × 16.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Warner Communications, Inc.
Accession
621.1976
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
