Mosquée de Bellal
Maxime Du Camp
French, 1822–1894
c. 1849
A salted‑paper photographic print by Maxime Du Camp that records the ruined Mosque of Bellal in Egypt, made as part of mid‑19th‑century efforts to document foreign monuments.
The hushed, matte tones and the lone minaret rising above crumbled walls give the scene a quiet, monumental loneliness that makes the ruin feel both enduring and precarious.
An early example of travel and archaeological photography, it helped establish the medium as a means of documenting distant cultures and monuments and shaped European understanding of Middle Eastern architecture.
Medium
Salted paper print from a paper negative
Dimensions
6 1/2 × 8 7/16" (16.5 × 21.4 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Warner Communications, Inc.
Accession
1126.1979
Palette
Exhibitions
