4036 - Frith, Francis

Frith, Francis The Sphinx and the Great Pyramid, Giza; The Sphinx, Giza. 1857. 2 albumen prints from wet-collodion glass negatives. 14.8 x 21.8 cm and 15.8 x 23 cm. Signed, dated, and numbered on the negatives: “Frith E. No. 71 1857” and “Frith 154”. Originally a cutlery apprentice and later a grocer, Frith turned to photography in the early 1850s. Between 1856 and 1860, he undertook three major expeditions through Egypt and the Near East, producing wet-collodion glass plate negatives in a portable darkroom and publishing the resulting albumen prints for an international audience. These two early views of Giza belong to the foundational body of work from which Frith developed his celebrated Egyptian publications, combining compositional clarity with archaeological precision and an evocative sense of place. His work established a new model for photographic travel documentation, serving both scholarly interest in ancient monuments and the Victorian market for images of the Near East. – Both prints show minor handling marks and slight discoloration along the edges; no. 71 has a faint fingerprint-like mark in the sky, visible only in raking light, but is otherwise in excellent condition.