Charnay, Desire
French (1828-1915)

TITLE ON OBJECT: Chichen-Itza: Main facade of the Nun's Palace
ALBUM TITLE: Untitled ablum of photographs, Paris, ca. 1863

ca. 1857-1861
albumen print
34.4 x 43.5 cm.
Gift of Eastman Kodak Company: ex-collection Gabriel Cromer
GEH NEG: 23465
73:0199:0014

NON-GEH NUMBER: 421415

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES:
Davis, Keith F. --Désiré Charnay, Expeditionary Photographer.-- Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981. plate 20.//
Sobieszek, Robert A. --Masterpieces of Photography from the George Eastman House Collections.-- New York: Abbeville Press, 1985. p. 121.//
This image was part of GEH's submission to Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) in 1999.//
Mulligan, Therese & Wooters, David. --Photography from 1839 to today: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.-- Cologne: Taschen, 1999. p. 192.//

EXHIBITION HISTORY:
"Images of Excellence", US, NY, Rochester, GEH - Brackett Clark Gallery, January 1 - April 26, 1987. (Traveled).//
"Beginnings of Art in Photography: Selections from the Museum's Nineteenth", US, NY, Rochester, GEH - North Gallery, December 22 - October 7, 1990.//
"Inside Out: 50 Years of Collecting", US, NY, Rochester April 24, 1999 - March 12, 2000.//

INSCRIPTION: mat recto-(handwritten in pencil) "Main Facade of the Nunnery of Chichen-Itza", "(Kelemen Pl. 38b)", "X", (printed above image) "14" mat verso-(handwritten in pencil) "421415"

NOTES: Catalogued by R. Sobieszek/PB, 4/85. "Claude-Joseph Le Désiré Charnay (1828-1915) was a well known archeologist, specializing in pre-Columbian cultures. He helped to popularize archeology and anthropology through his many articles and novels related to his experiences in Mexico and around the world. Charnay used photography as a recording tool in the same way he used papier-maché to make molds of the bas-relief carvings. The photographs in the GEH album were made during Charnay's first expedition to Mexico (1857-1861). They are among the first photographs made of these pre-Columbian religious buildings and the earliest use of photography for archeological purposes. Though all but one of the photographs in the album were published by Charnay in 1863 in the 'Atlas' of --Cités et Ruines américaines: Mitla, Palenque, Izamal, Chichén-Itza ...-- this album is unique. These photographs have been unmounted from a previous board and reassembled to make this album." [Sabrina Esmeraldo - GEH, 1994]

SUBJECT: architecture, ruins