Photograph by Shannon Ruff, Canon EOS Mark II D digital slr-2007.

Untitled (Algiers, girl with houkah)

Artist Count Jean Félix Gustave de Beaucorps (French, 1824 - 1906)

CultureFrench

Dateca. 1858

MediumAlbumen print from collodion negative

DimensionsOverall, Image: 6 11/16 × 8 13/16 in. (17 × 22.4 cm)
Overall, Support: 11 3/4 × 15 1/16 in. (29.8 × 38.3 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 1/16 × 20 in. (40.8 × 50.8 cm)
Overall, Frame (estimated): 17 1/4 × 21 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (43.8 × 54 × 3.2 cm)

InscribedIn pencil, left side: "gustave de Beaucorps, Algerie ca. 1858"

Credit LineGift of Glen and Marshall McClure and museum purchase in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank

Object number2006.1.1

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 228

DescriptionAlbumen print from a wet collodion negative mounted on its original board. The subject stares directly at the camera engaging the viewer with eye contact.

Label TextCount Jean Félix Gustave de Beaucorps French, 1824–1906 Untitled (Algiers, girl with hookah), 1859 Albumen print from collodion negative Gustave de Beaucorps was an amateur photographer who documented his travels to Spain, Italy, and North Africa. His views of Algerian women show them in heavy veils against a studio backdrop. Though indebted to Orientalist French paintings of sexualized, reclining women, this photograph shows a sitter who is too young, and appears to have been hastily costumed and awkwardly staged. Perhaps Beaucorps had never composed such a scene or thought his friends in Paris would relish any glimpse under the veils that Muslim girls were obliged to wear outside the home. Gift of Glen and Marshall McClure and Museum purchase in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank 2006.1.1 ProvenanceSerge Kakou, France; Robert Hershkowitz, England, 2005; Chrysler Museum of Art, Gift of Glen and Marshall McClure and Museum purchase in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank, 2006. Exhibition History"New Frames of Reference: Early French Photographers at Home and Abroad," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, gallery 228, September 5, 2024 - February 16, 2025. "Gustave de Beaucorps, 1825-1906: Calotypes "l'appel del l'Orient,"1858-1861," Musée de l'Echevinage, Saintes, April 25 - June 29, 1992; Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers, July 4 - August 31, 1992 "The World of Photography," Alice R. and Frank B. Sol Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, June 20, 2007 - May 25, 2008 "Photographic Histories," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, May 10 - August 17, 2014.Published ReferencesMarianne Thauré, Michel Rérolle, and Yves Lebrun, _ Gustave de Beaucorps, 1825-1906: Calotypes "appeal del l'Orient", 1858-1861_, exh. cat., Musée de l'Echevinage, Saintes, France, 1992, 37. ISBN: 978-2903015244 Kathleen Stewart Howe, _First Seen: Portraits of the World's Peoples, 1840-1880_, exh. cat., Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA., 2004, 70-71. A print of this photograph