Collection Online as of June 8, 2023
General View of Monuments Carved into Bedrock with Photographer's Dahabieh. Abu Simbel
Félix Teynard
(French, 1817–1892)
Salted paper print from a paper negative
Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 2010.268
Location
not on view
Description
Teynard, a civil engineer, may have learned photography for his 1851–52 tour of Egypt, which he undertook “to study certain questions of personal interest.” In 1858 he published his photographic record of ancient sites, the most comprehensive to date, as a book of salted paper prints. Teynard traveled by dahabieh, a small passenger boat visible in this image. He asked his readers to grant some indulgence for photographers carrying out such painstaking work in an arduous locale like Egypt. “A nomad, his working method is always provisional, and the delicate preparations for his photography must be carried out on a small sailing boat rocking in the water, or under a tent standing in the midst of the desert.”
Félix Teynard
Félix Teynard French, 1817-1892
Félix Teynard, believed to have been born in Grenoble, was a civil engineer who traveled and photographed in Egypt in 1851-52. Of the resulting plates, 160 were published in Paris by Goupil et Cie. and printed by H. de Fonteny in 32 installments of five each between 1853-54 under the title Egypte et Nubie. Sites et Monument les plus intéressantes pour l'étude de l'art et de l'histoire. . . . The collection later was published in 1857 by Goupil et Cie. for the extraordinary purchase price of nearly 1,000 francs.
Although Teynard is not known to have photographed again, his calotypes of Egypt are prized for their strong personal sensibility. Light and shadow play a strong role, and complex scenes are reduced to broad and simple forms. Teynard returned to Egypt in 1869 from his home in Saint-Martin as an official guest at the opening of the Suez Canal. No evidence of photographic activity on this later journey has been found. T.W.F.