1841 self-portraitMavi Boncuk |
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (21 October 1804 – 7 December 1892) was a French photographer and draughtsman who was active in the Middle East. His daguerreotypes are the earliest surviving photographs of Greece, Palestine, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. Remarkably, his photographs were only discovered in the 1920s in a storeroom of his estate and then only became known eighty years later.
Girault de Prangey studied painting in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and in 1841 he learned daguerreotypy, possibly from Louis Daguerre himself or from Hippolyte Bayard. Girault de Prangey was keenly interested in the architecture of the Middle East, and he toured Italy and the countries of the eastern Mediterranean between 1841 and 1844, producing over 900 daguerreotypes of architectural views, landscapes, and portraits.
After his return to France, Girault de Prangey made watercolour and pen-and-ink studies after his photographs and published a small-edition book of lithographs from them. He also made stereographs of his estate and the exotic plants he collected. Girault de Prangey did not exhibit or otherwise make his photographs known during his lifetime.
J.-P. Girault de Prangey, 173, Constantinople, Surudjé, 1843., daguerréotype, 12,1 x 9,5 cm. Christie's Image Ltd.
Constantinople. Pavillon prés du Sérail. , 1843–1843
See also: Alchemy on a PlateThe first photographs of Istanbul BY ELIZABETH MEATH BAKER
Sold in 2003 for record prices, these magical daguerrotype plates of Istanbul in the 1840s are the earliest known photographic images of the city. They are the work of Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, an obsessive Frenchman with a passion for Islamic architecture. By Elizabeth Meath Baker.[1]
A view of the Selimiye in Üsküdar taken in 1843. Photograph courtesy of Christies Images Ltd, 2003
[1] Elizabeth Meath Baker is a Contributing Editor of Cornucopia, and has written several Trade Secrets articles on art and artisans. She is also a member of the Walsingham Farms Shop Partnership.