Lot 552: AUGUSTE SALZMANN (1824-1872)

AUGUSTE SALZMANN (1824-1872)
Jerusalem: Saint Sépulchre, Détails de la Chapelle du Calvaire, 1854
Blanquart-Evrard salted paper print from a waxed-paper negative
printed artist, title and letterpress credits (on the mount)
12 7/8 x 9 1/8in. (32.6 x 23.4cm.)

With Paul Cava, Philadelphia; acquired c. 1980

Auguste Salzmann, a painter of landscapes, religious scenes and a keen archaeologist, as well as a photographer, was fascinated by the Middle East from an early age. He visited Italy and Algeria with his friend Eugene Fromentin, and was in Egypt at the time of the excavations of Auguste Mariette (1821-1881). Taking advantage of a mission supported by the Ministre de l'Instruction Publique, he set off for the Holy Land at the end of 1853 and in 1854 produced approximately 200 exquisite salted paper prints in support of archaeologist Louis Felicien Caignart de Saulcy's disputed thesis of the age and appearance of indigenous monuments. 174 of these images (of which lots 552-554 are three examples) were published in the album Jerusalem in 1855-1856.