Westernmost Colossus of the Temple of Re, Abu Simbel

Art Historical Context

Step into the shadow of ancient grandeur with Maxime Du Camp's *Westernmost Colossus of Temple of Re, Abubel* (1850), a salted paper print that captures one of the colossal statues guarding Ramses II's rock-cut temple in Nubia, Egypt. Du Camp, a French writer and photographer, documented this awe-inspiring monument during his 1849–1850 with Gustave Flaubert, bringing the pharaoh's 66-foot-tall likeness—carved in the 13th century BCE—into sharp focus for 19th-century viewers. This image exemplifies early calotype photography, using a paper negative to produce a textured, soft-toned salted paper print, a technique that prized subtlety over precision. At just 9 × 6½ inches, it shrinks the colossus to intimate scale, highlighting the statue's serene expression and intricate details amid the desert temple's facade. As part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection, it underscores photography's role in preserving endangered antiquities—Abu Simbel itself was later relocated in the 1960s to save it from flooding. Du Camp's work bridged Orientalist fascination with scientific documentation, offering museum-goers a tangible link to Egypt's monumental past and the dawn of photographic exploration.

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...