The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 19, 2026

A vertically oriented photochrom on speckled paper depicts a man in a dark cloak and turban riding a donkey along a rocky path. He faces right toward rolling, dry hills. To the left, a gnarled olive tree with leafy green foliage frames the scene. Hand-tinted washes of sage green and earth tones create a textured, sunlit landscape, while fine stippling defines the stony path and the man's white beard.

Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville (Man on a Donkey)

c. 1880s

Félix Bonfils

(French, 1831–1885)
France
Photochrom
Image: 22.5 x 16.4 cm (8 7/8 x 6 7/16 in.); Paper: 22.5 x 16.4 cm (8 7/8 x 6 7/16 in.); Mounted: 26.6 x 18.1 cm (10 1/2 x 7 1/8 in.)
Gift of William and Margaret Lipscomb 2021.208.a
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

In the early 1880s,FélixBonfils was among the first photographers to use the Photocrom process, which producedcolor images from a single black-and-white negative.

Description

To make a photochrom, a photographic negative was transferred onto a lithographic stone, then printers created a minimum of six and up to fifteen different stones, each with a single color of ink, which were printed atop the black-and-white image. The printers creating the colors had never seen the original locale. Photochroms were popular from the 1890s into the 1910s and were most often collected in albums or framed and hung on the wall.
  • ?-2021
    William S. and Margaret Lipscomb, Shaker Heights, OH, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    December 6, 2021
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville (Man on a Donkey)|url=false|author=Félix Bonfils|year=c. 1880s|access-date=19 July 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2021.208.a