Palais de Karnak, sculptures extérieures du sanctuaire de granit.

Art Historical Context

Step into the ancient grandeur of Egypt's Karnak Temple Complex with Maxime Du Camp's *Palais de Karnak, extérieures du sanctuaire granit* (1849–51). This salted paper print captures the weathered exterior sculptures of the granite sanctuary, featuring carved figures of men and boats—likely barques symbolizing the sun god's voyages across the heavens. Du Camp, a pioneering French photographer and writer, documented these monumental forms during his 1849–51 expedition alongside Gustave Flaubert, producing some of the earliest photographs of's pharaonic wonders. Printed on paper salted with sodium chloride and sensitized with silver nitrate, this 6 7/16 × 8 7/16 in. image exemplifies the calotype process's delicate tonalities and fine detail, which beautifully render the sculptures' intricate hieroglyphs and muscular forms. At a time when photography was in its infancy, Du Camp's work bridged archaeology and art, later published in his seminal album *Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie* (1852), influencing 19th-century Orientalism and scholarly study of ancient Egypt. Today, housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection, this print invites us to marvel at Karnak's enduring legacy—a vast temple built over 2,000 years by pharaohs like Ramses II—frozen forever through Du Camp's lens.

About the Artist

Maxime Du Camp · 1822–present

Maxime Du Camp (1822–1894) was a pioneering French photographer and writer whose adventurous spirit and technical innovation bridged literature and visual art during the mid-19th century. Born in Paris on February 8, 1822, to a prosperous family—his father a successful surgeon—Du Camp received a solid bourgeois education at the Collège Bourbon (now Lycée Condorcet), where he cultivated interests i...