ULTIMATE Early French Masterworks from the Hyman Collection Félix Teynard Follow Karnak (Thèbes), Cour du Palais – Vue Prise du Point I 1851-1852 Salt print, mounted, Plate 51 from Égypte et Nubie (Goupil, 1858) and its unique waxed paper negative. Image/sheet: 31.1 x 25.5 cm (12 1/4 x 10 in.) Mount: 49 x 37 cm (19 1/4 x 14 5/8 in.) Negative: 31.6 x 25.8 cm (12 1/2 x 10 1/8 in.) Salt print with letterpress credit, title, plate number '51' and publisher’s and printer’s credits on the mount. Waxed paper negative, numbered 'N° 51' in ink on the verso. This paper negative is unique. A number of institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, and Musée d’Orsay hold other salt prints of this image from Égypte et Nubie (Goupil, 1858). This is the first auction offering of a paper negative by Teynard paired with its salt print.
Condition Report Sign up or Log in Provenance Salt print: Originally in a copy of Teynard’s Égypte et Nubie: sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l’étude de l’art et de l’histoire , Paris, London, Berlin and New York: Goupil, 1858, from the library of the Marquis Emmanuel du Bourg de Bozas Chaix d’est-Ange, Château de Prye Weston Gallery, Carmel, CA, 2013 The Hyman Collection, London Negative: Private Collection, France Ivoire Chartres, Galerie de Chartres, Important ensemble de 40 négatifs papier originaux par Félix Teynard pris lors de son voyage en Egypte en 1851-1852 , 25 May 2013, lot 43 The Hyman Collection, London Literature F. Teynard, Égypte et Nubie: sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l’étude de l’art et de l’histoire , Paris, London, Berlin and New York: Goupil, 1858, pl. 56 K. S. Howe, Félix Teynard Calotypes of Egypt: Catalogue Raisonné , New York, London and Carmel: Hans P. Kraus Jr. Inc, Robert Hershkowitz Ltd, Weston Gallery, 1992, pl. 51, p. 173, this salt print Catalogue Essay The present lot is an exceptional negative and positive pair of Karnak in Thebes (Luxor) by Félix Teynard French master of paper photography in Egypt. A civil engineer from Grenoble, Teynard travelled to Egypt in 1851 with the desire to create a photographic complement to the monumental Description de l’Égypte (published 1810-28) from Napoleon’s 1798-1801 expedition. Using the paper negative process with great success, Teynard was only the second after Maxime Du Camp to photograph in Egypt; Teynard’s negatives were larger in format and his subjects were more varied than those of his predecessor. ‘Teynard’s work of large format is the record of stunned emotion, pure vision and a freedom of the senses rarely so forcibly expressed in early photography,’ write André Jammes and Eugenia Parry Janis in The Art of French Calotype , ‘his work is an abstract record of Egypt discovered by the eye’ (p. 249). Aside from his earliest known photograph, taken of his home in Grenoble in the summer of 1851 prior to his departure, Teynard’s survey of Egypt is his only known body of work. Teynard’s survey was published serially from 1853-54 then in 1858 as Égypte et Nubie: sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l’étude de l’art et de l’histoire , a compilation volume of 160 plates. Distinguished by its reddish hue, the salt print offered here is Plate 51 – showing the Court and the remaining column by the Second Pylon entrance to the Hypostyle Hall – from a rare, complete copy of Égypte et Nubie , originally from the library of the Marquis Emmanuel du Bourg de Bozas Chaix d’est-Ange, Château de Prye. Once part of a unique group of negatives by Teynard in a private French collection that was subsequently sold at auction, the paired waxed paper negative is clearly viewable even without transmitted light and reveals Teynard’s intricate handwork. By applying black ink to the sky and boulders, as well as blue watercolour to the column, he heightened the chiaroscuro qualities of the paper negative. It is likely that Teynard learned Louis Blanquart-Evrard’s wet-paper method of producing paper negatives through his technical manuals, which were available in France at the time. This method would have allowed Teynard to retouch and wax his negatives on his return from Egypt. Created over 150 years ago, this negative is a unique relic and represents early techniques and artistry that have been lost in present day photography. Read More
ULTIMATE Early French Masterworks from the Hyman Collection Félix Teynard Follow Karnak (Thèbes), Cour du Palais – Vue Prise du Point I 1851-1852 Salt print, mounted, Plate 51 from Égypte et Nubie (Goupil, 1858) and its unique waxed paper negative. Image/sheet: 31.1 x 25.5 cm (12 1/4 x 10 in.) Mount: 49 x 37 cm (19 1/4 x 14 5/8 in.) Negative: 31.6 x 25.8 cm (12 1/2 x 10 1/8 in.) Salt print with letterpress credit, title, plate number '51' and publisher’s and printer’s credits on the mount. Waxed paper negative, numbered 'N° 51' in ink on the verso. This paper negative is unique. A number of institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, and Musée d’Orsay hold other salt prints of this image from Égypte et Nubie (Goupil, 1858). This is the first auction offering of a paper negative by Teynard paired with its salt print.
Condition Report Sign up or Log in Provenance Salt print: Originally in a copy of Teynard’s Égypte et Nubie: sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l’étude de l’art et de l’histoire , Paris, London, Berlin and New York: Goupil, 1858, from the library of the Marquis Emmanuel du Bourg de Bozas Chaix d’est-Ange, Château de Prye Weston Gallery, Carmel, CA, 2013 The Hyman Collection, London Negative: Private Collection, France Ivoire Chartres, Galerie de Chartres, Important ensemble de 40 négatifs papier originaux par Félix Teynard pris lors de son voyage en Egypte en 1851-1852 , 25 May 2013, lot 43 The Hyman Collection, London Literature F. Teynard, Égypte et Nubie: sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l’étude de l’art et de l’histoire , Paris, London, Berlin and New York: Goupil, 1858, pl. 56 K. S. Howe, Félix Teynard Calotypes of Egypt: Catalogue Raisonné , New York, London and Carmel: Hans P. Kraus Jr. Inc, Robert Hershkowitz Ltd, Weston Gallery, 1992, pl. 51, p. 173, this salt print Catalogue Essay The present lot is an exceptional negative and positive pair of Karnak in Thebes (Luxor) by Félix Teynard French master of paper photography in Egypt. A civil engineer from Grenoble, Teynard travelled to Egypt in 1851 with the desire to create a photographic complement to the monumental Description de l’Égypte (published 1810-28) from Napoleon’s 1798-1801 expedition. Using the paper negative process with great success, Teynard was only the second after Maxime Du Camp to photograph in Egypt; Teynard’s negatives were larger in format and his subjects were more varied than those of his predecessor. ‘Teynard’s work of large format is the record of stunned emotion, pure vision and a freedom of the senses rarely so forcibly expressed in early photography,’ write André Jammes and Eugenia Parry Janis in The Art of French Calotype , ‘his work is an abstract record of Egypt discovered by the eye’ (p. 249). Aside from his earliest known photograph, taken of his home in Grenoble in the summer of 1851 prior to his departure, Teynard’s survey of Egypt is his only known body of work. Teynard’s survey was published serially from 1853-54 then in 1858 as Égypte et Nubie: sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l’étude de l’art et de l’histoire , a compilation volume of 160 plates. Distinguished by its reddish hue, the salt print offered here is Plate 51 – showing the Court and the remaining column by the Second Pylon entrance to the Hypostyle Hall – from a rare, complete copy of Égypte et Nubie , originally from the library of the Marquis Emmanuel du Bourg de Bozas Chaix d’est-Ange, Château de Prye. Once part of a unique group of negatives by Teynard in a private French collection that was subsequently sold at auction, the paired waxed paper negative is clearly viewable even without transmitted light and reveals Teynard’s intricate handwork. By applying black ink to the sky and boulders, as well as blue watercolour to the column, he heightened the chiaroscuro qualities of the paper negative. It is likely that Teynard learned Louis Blanquart-Evrard’s wet-paper method of producing paper negatives through his technical manuals, which were available in France at the time. This method would have allowed Teynard to retouch and wax his negatives on his return from Egypt. Created over 150 years ago, this negative is a unique relic and represents early techniques and artistry that have been lost in present day photography. Read More
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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