Monday Morning Museum: Francis Frith

Self-Portrait in Middle Eastern Costume,1857 by Francis Frith

Francis Frith – Thursday 31 October 1822 Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England to Friday 25 February 1898 Cannes, France

English Photographer

The Rameseum of El-Kurneh, Thebes, 1857

Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions: Image: 37.9 x 47.7 cm (14 15/16 x 18 3/4 in.)
Classification: Photographs
- Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Throughout the 1850s and 1860s photographs of historical and topographical sights were highly desirable and Frith was one of the most successful commercial photographers to cater to this demand. His pioneering photographic expeditions to the Near East proved very popular. The detail afforded by wet collodian negatives, as used for this image, produced prints that British publishers readily marketed. This photograph captures the monumentality of Egyptian landscape and architecture as well as the dramatic play of light on sand and stone." – Victoria and Albert Museum

Last Monday’s Artist – Jan Van De Cappelle
Next Monday’s Artist – Washington Allston

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent