Francis Frith, The Pyramids of Saqqara, from the Northeast
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Charles Isaacs in honor of Louis and Martha Isaacs, 1996.19 · The Cleveland Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)View original →
Francis Frith

The Pyramids of Saqqara, from the Northeast

1858

Current Collection

Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Medium
albumen print from wet collodion negative
Dimensions
38.2 × 47.7 cm
Status
In Museum Collection
Collect24 Art ID
C24-199236

Frith was the first photographer in Egypt to successfully use the wet collodion process, introduced in 1851. Its glass plate negatives yielded sharper, more detailed images than paper ones. He even created mammoth plate prints, as this size is called, which required equally large glass plate negatives. Pursuing the process’s exacting chemistry in Egypt’s scorching sunlight was trying. Frith sometimes sought refuge in tombs for the cool air and darkness to process his plates. “Pushing myself backwards upon my hands and knees, into a damp slimy rock-tomb . . . I prepared my pictures by candleli…

Provenance

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Charles Isaacs in honor of Louis and Martha Isaacs, 1996.19

Registry history

  • 1858 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art — photographs

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