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SYRIA THE EARLIEST SURVIVING PHOTOGRAPHS FROM SYRIA The subject that most concerned Girault de Prangey in Syria when he was there in 1844, was undoubtedly the maginificent Roman ruins at Baalbek. Here he appears to have made more photographs than at any other single location. However, he also allowed time to visit other important Syrian sites including Aleppo, Atlit, Damascus, Tripoli and Souk. It was Vernet, Goupil-Fesquet and Joly de Lotbinière who preceded Girault de Prangey to Syria in January 1840. It is recorded that Goupil-Fesquet made the first daguerreotype view of Damascus on 19 January at 3.20pm. In February 1840 Joly de Lotbinière made the earliest view of which we still have a visual record, as it was later reproduced in Excursions Daguerriennes. Girault de Prangey's photographs are, once again, the earliest to have survived from Syria. Damascus, celebrated as the "Paradise" or "Pearl" of the Orient, and competing with Aleppo for the credit of the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, has architectural and historical remains influenced by periods of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab and Ottoman rule. In the period immediately preceding the artist's visit, between 1831 and 1840, Syria came under Egyptian control and Europeans were more easily able to visit the city.

JOSEPH-PHILIBERT GIRAULT DE PRANGEY

229. Damas. 1844. Iwan. Détails.

Details

JOSEPH-PHILIBERT GIRAULT DE PRANGEY
229. Damas. 1844. Iwan. Détails.
Daguerreotype. Titled, dated and numbered in ink on label on verso.
9½ x 7 3/8in. (24 x 18.7cm.)

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Lot Essay

A whole-plate study used to show the richness of detailing within this Islamic interior.

The iwan (or diwan) is a feature of palaces and private houses in Islamic architecture: a thee-sided hall used as a 'salon', the fourth side of which is replaced with an open archway. This elaborately decorated example is probably within the building described on the label of another daguerreotype as l'Hotel de Palmyre. That half-plate daguerreotype shows a different interior wall but with many of the same decorative elements. This view exemplifies the refinement of the decorations which adorn the Damascene palaces and houses.

The archive of Girault de Prangey includes approximately fifteen daguerreotypes made in Damascus. This is one of only two whole-plate examples.

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