Artwork Page for Bassaule, the Hill of Caves

Details / Information for Bassaule, the Hill of Caves

Series Title: Afghanistan, February 1880

Bassaule, the Hill of Caves

1878–80

John Burke

(Irish, 1845–1915)
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Culture
Ireland
Medium
albumen print
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund 2024.6.ff
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

This album includes some of the earliest photographs of Afghanistan.

Description

The subject of this album is the Second Anglo-Afghan War, which was fought from 1878 to 1880. John Burke was the first photographer to photograph extensively in Afghanistan and the main photographer covering that conflict. The technology of the day did not permit action shots of battles. As is usual for early conflict photography, the pictures are landscapes of the sites of momentous incidents, views of camps and civil and military infrastructure, and portraits of the soldiers and their leaders.
An albumen print presents a horizontal landscape in warm, sepia tones. A wide river flows across the foreground. On the center left, a large mountain rises, its surface detailed with horizontal rock layers. Dark, scattered trees dot the flat middle ground. Distant, hazy peaks fill the background under a pale sky, conveying a sense of vast depth. An inscription marks the water's surface in the lower left corner.

Bassaule, the Hill of Caves

1878–80

John Burke

(Irish, 1845–1915)
Ireland

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