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Lot Essay
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey was a French nobleman, an archaeologist and writer specialising in Arabian architecture. He was also one of the first photographers to document the ancient sites of the Near East. His first photographs were made in and around his home in France in 1841 (see lot 3). In 1842 he embarked on an extended trip around the Orient photographing the ancient and historic sites of Greece, Constantinople, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. On his return he published a book with the illustrations based on several of these daguerreotypes, Monuments arabes d'Egypte, Syrie et Asie Mineure, 1846.
Girault de Prangey's approach to his subjects was both systematic and imaginative and he devised an interesting method of achieving multiple images on one standard plate in order to create formats which were aesthetically appropriate to his subject matter (see lot 10). Many of his photographs are characterised by a panoramic format which he adopted with striking effect for both distant panoramas (see lots 9, 11 and 12) and vertical details such as minarets and columns.
Although little has been written about this important early photographer's oeuvre it has been noted that in many instances his photographs are the earliest known of certain locations. Yeshayahu Nir writes in The Bible and the Image that his collection includes "the only extant original daguerreotypes from the Holy Land." (see lots 12 and 13)
Girault de Prangey's approach to his subjects was both systematic and imaginative and he devised an interesting method of achieving multiple images on one standard plate in order to create formats which were aesthetically appropriate to his subject matter (see lot 10). Many of his photographs are characterised by a panoramic format which he adopted with striking effect for both distant panoramas (see lots 9, 11 and 12) and vertical details such as minarets and columns.
Although little has been written about this important early photographer's oeuvre it has been noted that in many instances his photographs are the earliest known of certain locations. Yeshayahu Nir writes in The Bible and the Image that his collection includes "the only extant original daguerreotypes from the Holy Land." (see lots 12 and 13)