Nile Boat, Cairo
Artist
Wilhelm Hammerschmidt
(German, ca.1830 - 1869)
Dateca. 1860
MediumAlbumen print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 8 7/16 × 10 13/16 inches (21.43 × 27.46 cm)
Mount: 14 1/16 × 14 1/4 inches (35.72 × 36.2 cm)
Mount: 14 1/16 × 14 1/4 inches (35.72 × 36.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2009.6.1
SignedOn image recto, lower right corner, in black pen: "W. Hammerschmidt / 179."
InscribedOn mount recto, lower left, in black pen: "Daharabieh, or Nile Boat. Cairo."
MarkingsOn mount recto, lower right, in pencil: "3";
On mount recto, bottom, in pencil: "I1029", "WH2".
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of a boat with a large mast pulling a smaller wooden boat; two figures stand on the boat.Two other images are mounted vertically on verso:
There are two additional photographs pasted to the back of the mount (Nile boat image was apparently part of a larger photo album at one time). The top image is a landscape view of a city with a river and mountains in distance. The bottom image is a view of a manicured sunken garden; a path circles a grassy area with five tables set randomly within. Neither photo is signed or titled. Neither is to be accessioned.Exhibition History
Exploring Egypt: 19th Century Expeditionary Photography. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 6 - July 18, 2010, no cat.
This image depicts a dahabeeyah, a boat commonly used along the Nile River in Egypt. The vessel was small enough to traverse the shallow cataracts and whitewater of the Nile, yet large enough to include a cabin for sleeping.
The German-born Wilhelm Hammerschmidt moved to Cairo in 1860 and took an interest in the workers around him, including boatmen along the Nile. He also established a business that sold photographic equipment to European photographers whose fascination with Egypt’s land, its people, and its archeological sites rose after Napoleon’s invasion in the 1790s.
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Pascal Sébah
ca. 1870s
2010.33.3.A,B
