Collection Guide
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Middle Eastern and North African Views and Portraits
93.R.72
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Middle Eastern and North African views and portraits
Creator:
Bonfils, Félix, 1831-1885
Creator:
Bonfils
Creator:
Béchard, Henri
Identifier/Call Number: 93.R.72
Physical Description:
32 photographic prints
Date (inclusive): circa 1870-circa 1900
Abstract: This collection of albumen prints dates from the last quarter of the nineteenth
century and comprises views and portraits from North Africa and the Middle East, some of which are signed "Bonfils."
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here
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access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is in French and English.
Middle Eastern and North African views and portraits, circa 1870-circa 1900, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession
no. 93.R.72
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa93r72
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection of albumen prints dates from the last quarter of the nineteenth century and comprises three groups of images:
eight unmounted
photographs; 16 photographs mounted recto and verso on eight loose blue album leaves; and eight photographs mounted recto
and verso on four loose buff
album leaves. Four of the unmounted photographs and 14 of those mounted on blue leaves are signed "Bonfils." These images
include studio or otherwise
posed portraits of camel drivers, Bedouin musicians, Egyptian dancers and singers, and a variety of young women identified
as being "mauresque,"
Egyptian, or Turkish, plus one image of a group of young girls on a road near Mt. Carmel. Geographic locales include Algeria
(a mosque and a
neighborhood vegetable stand); Syria (Baalbek, a palace door); and Rhodes (rue des Chevaliers).
Images in the group on buff leaves, all unsigned (though two are attributed on the mount to Bonfils), are from an album compiled
by an English couple
touring Egypt and vicinity. Captioned locales include Luxor (Thebes), the pyramids, and Petra, and include the date of the
visit. Of particular interest
are two images of a man and woman in European dress ascending and descending the Great Pyramid at Giza with the assistance
of many local guides
(attributed on the mount to Béchard).
Processed and cataloged by Beth Ann Guynn; finding aid encoded by Holly Larson with grant funding from the Council on Library
and Information Resources
(CLIR).
Acquired in 1993.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Eighteen photographs are signed Bonfils in the negative, and two others are attibuted to Bonfils. The Bonfils family operated
a photographic studio in
Beirut from 1867 to 1918. Félix Bonfils produced most of the early work; his wife, Lydie, son, Adrien, and various assistants
were responsible for the
later work. One image is attributed to Henri Béchard, who was active in Egypt in the 1870s and 1880s.
Arranged in three series: Series I. Photographic prints mounted on blue album leaves; Series II. Photographic prints mounted
on buff album leaves;
Series III. Photographic prints, unmounted.
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Permissions
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The collection was digitized by the repository and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/93r72
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Pyramids -- Egypt
Africa, North -- Description and travel
Middle East -- Description and travel
Musicians -- Egypt
Albumen prints -- 19th century
Ba'labakk (Lebanon)
Women -- Middle East -- Portraits