Felix Teynard

(FRENCH, 1817 - 1892)

Felix Teynard, the great French master of the calotype, is known for his photographs of Egypt from 1851-1852 during a Nile voyage. The publication of these works was named Égypte et Nubie and subtitled ‘a photographic atlas complementing the great work of Napoleonic scholarship, Description de l'Egypte'. Fewer than twenty copies are known to exist. His magnificent plates convincingly evoke the timeless experience of the monumental desert architecture and the stark landscape. Relatively elusive historically, Teynard’s sensitivity to his subject matter has long been noted and his calotypes considered some of the most important images of the 19th century.