About This Image

Photographer's stamp in green ink in the lower left corner of the print (cut off): "[...] F". Printed on the mount: "ÉGYPTE" (above the image); "DJIZEH (NÉCROPOLE DE MEMPHIS)/SPHINX, ET PYRAMIDES. Pl. 8" (centered below the image); and "Imp. Phot. de H. de Fonteny et Cie. f. en 1851. Paris, r. St Nicolas d'Antin, 72.", "Félix Teynard.", "Publié par Goupil & Cie éditeurs. Paris, Londres, Berlin, New-York." (in small type along the lower edge of the image).

Plate 8 of Teynard's publication "Égypte et Nubie, sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l'étude de l'art et de l'histoire. Atlas photographié accompagné de plans et d'une table explicative servant de complément à la Grande Description de l'Égypte" (Paris : Goupil, 1858). Publication in two volumes, with 160 plates of photographs printed by Élisabeth Hubert de Fonteny's printing establishment in 1853-1854 from waxed-paper negatives made by Teynard in 1851-1852.

In October 1851, Élisabeth Hubert de Fonteny (1809–1862) founded "La première imprimerie photographique à Paris"--litterally translating as the First photographic printer in Paris--just a few weeks following the creation of a similar business by Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Évrard in Lille. The "H. de Fonteny" establishment has long been known for the quality of its work, most notably for the publication of photographs by Teynard, Vigier and F. A. Renard. It is only more recently that a woman has been identified as being behind this abbreviated signature.

Félix Teynard was born on January 14, 1817 in Grenoble, France, where he remained for most of his life.

A civil engineer, Teynard traveled to Egypt in 1851-52 with the express purpose of updating the standard architectural reference on Egypt, "Description de l'Égypte", a lavish publication of oversized engravings issued by Napoleon's team of savants between 1809 and 1829.

Teynard photographed sites from Cairo to Nubia, traveling up the Nile as far as the Second Cataract above Abu Simbel. He had an evident wonder at the engineering skills of the ancient architects and builders and had an uncommon grasp of the physicality of man-made constructions--their size and placement in space, their materials and decoration, and their state of conservation. Teynard's survey, 160 salted paper prints with accompanying text, was published by Groupil from 1853 to 1858 as "Égypte et Nubie: Sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l'étude de l'art et de l'histoire". Fewer than 20 complete sets have survived intact.

He died in Grenoble on August 28, 1892.

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