Lot 79: LOUIS DE CLERCQ

(French, 1836-1901) KALAAT-EL-HOSN (EXT+RIEUR DE LA PREMI+RE ENCEINTE) "KALAAT-EL-HOSN. (PREMI+RE ENCEINTE). Exterieur. (est.)" inscribed on mount vintage albumen print from a paper negative 811/16 x 111/16 in. (22.1 x 28.1 cm) mount: 177/8 x 235/16 in. (45.4 x 59.2 cm) circa 1859 PROVENANCE Harry Lunn, NEW YORK & PARIS Private Collection, FRANCE LITERATURE Frantoise Heilbrun and Phillipe NTagu, MUS+E D'ORSAY: CHEFS D'OEUVRE DE LA COLLECTION PHOTOGRAPHIQUE, Paris, 1986, cat. no. 48 (illustrated) Louis de Clercq, an archaeologist and photographer who made more than two hundred plates published under the title Voyage en Orient 1855-1860, villes, monuments et vues pittoresques, created this unusually framed picture while on an archaeological expedition to Syria with the Count de VognT. De Clercq used photography as a means of archaeological documentation. He was also able to satisfy an appetite in the 1850s for archaeology, historical realism and the exoticism of the antique. This series confirms de Clercq's position among other expedition photographers of his time: Maxime Du Camp, Pierre TrTmaux, FTlix Teynard, Auguste Salzmann, George Bridges, John Shaw Smith, James Graham and Jakob August Lorent.