Baalbeck. (Héliopolis) Grandes assises du temple du Soleil. 1859. Albumen print from a paper negative, mounted to card. 28 x 21,4 cm (mount 59,5 x 45,5 cm). Printed title and caption "Grandes assises du temple du Soleil."; numbered "36" at lower right.
Plate 36 from de Clercq’s Voyage en Orient. Villes, monuments, et vues pittoresques de Syrie, made during the 1859 archaeological expedition in Syria and Asia Minor led by Emmanuel-Guillaume Rey. Rather than presenting Baalbek as a panoramic ruin, de Clercq brings the camera close to its colossal foundation courses, making the ancient masonry’s scale, sequence and weathered surface the subject of the photograph. The unusually restrained composition is characteristic of his work: a precise archaeological record that also gives monumental architecture a striking formal presence.
Literatur: Rolf Mayer, ed. Louis de Clercq: Voyage en Orient (exhibition catalog). Stuttgart: Edition Cantz, 1989, ill. p. 90, fig. 36.
Karnak: South Propylon and Obelisks. 1850. 2 salted-paper prints from paper negatives, printed 1852, mounted to printed sheets. 16,2 x 19,8 cm (sheet 24,2 x 23,8 cm) and 20,2 x 14,8 cm (sheet 44,2 x 31,4 cm). Each with printed "THEBES.", "Maxime Du Camp", "Gide et Baudry, Editeurs." and "Imprimerie Photographique de Blanquart-Evrard, à Lille"; captioned "PALAIS DE KARNAK. PROPYLÉES DU SUD.", pl. 30, and "PALAIS DE KARNAK. LES OBÉLISQUES.", pl. 44.
Taken during Du Camp’s archaeological mission of 1849-51, these plates belong to Égypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie, the first photographically illustrated book published in France. The numbered Karnak views treat the temple complex as a systematic visual survey, each recording a discrete element of its ancient architecture. Printed as salted-paper positives from paper negatives at Blanquart-Évrard’s photographic press, they converted Du Camp’s expeditionary photographs into a reproducible published edition rather than singular travel images.
Ermakov, Dimitri Ivanovich
Georgia and the Georgian Military Road
Los 4033
Schätzung
3.000€ (US$ 3,448)
Georgia and the Georgian Military Road. 1880-1900. 14 albumen prints. Each between 17,7 x 24 cm and 21,5 x 27,5 cm. Several numbered and captioned in Cyrillic in the negatives, including "Коби" [Kobi], "Ананури" [Ananuri], "Ларс" [Lars] and "Мцхета" [Mtskheta].
A representative group combining market and workshop scenes, urban views of Tiflis, and landscapes along the Georgian Military Road. The commercial images depict vendors and craftsmen in front of their shops, while the topographical sequence follows the historic route through mountain valleys and gorges to Ananuri, Kobi, Lars and Mtskheta.
Forest of Fontainebleau. 1870-1874. 6 albumen prints from wet-collodion glass negatives, mounted on blue card. Each ca. 18,8 x 24,6 cm to 21 x 28,5 cm (mounts 35 x 51 cm). Most with faint "C. FAMIN PHOTOGRAPHE PARIS" blindstamp; numbered in the negatives and in pencil on the mounts, including 190, 202, 232, 245 and 258. Each mount stamped "PHOTOGRAPHIES ARTISTIQUES / A. FONCELLE / 3 QUAI MALAQUAIS."
Famin’s Fontainebleau photographs, issued from the 1860s, belong to a body of work that served both as landscape studies in their own right and as visual resources for painters working in and around Barbizon. This coherent selection concentrates on winding paths, monumental trees and quiet woodland interiors. The serial numbering and matching Foncelle mounts show the prints as part of Famin’s marketed series, rather than as later assembled views. Their shifting formats - from broad landscape studies to intimate vertical portraits of ancient trees - give the group both visual rhythm and a strong unity of place.
Fenton, Roger
Generals and Regiments of the Crimean War
Los 4035
Schätzung
2.500€ (US$ 2,874)
Generals and regiments of the Crimean War from Photographic Pictures of the Seat of War in the Crimea. 1855. 12 salted paper prints, mounted to card. Each between 13,3 x 15,6 cm and 20 x 14,4 cm (mounts 60 x 44,5 cm). With captions and printed credit line on the mount: "Photographed by R. Fenton. Manchester, Published by T. Agnew & Sons, March 25th, 1856. London, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Paris, Moulin 23, Rue Richer. New York, Williams & Co."
This group belongs to Roger Fenton’s landmark series Photographic Pictures of the Seat of War in the Crimea, published by Thomas Agnew & Sons in 1855-56. Made during Fenton’s expedition to the Crimea in 1855, the photographs portray officers, regiments, encampments and the ordered routines of military life. Deliberately avoiding the depiction of violence or suffering, Fenton’s photographs embody the Victorian ideals of stoicism and dignified heroism, and were instrumental in shaping contemporary public perception of the war. Today, they are recognized as a foundational achievement in the history of war photography.
Frith, Francis
Views of the Sphynx and the Great Pyramid Geezeh
Los 4036
Schätzung
1.500€ (US$ 1,724)
The Sphynx and Great Pyramid, Geezeh; The Sphynx, Geezeh. 1857. 2 albumen prints from wet-collodion glass negatives. 14,8 x 21,8 cm and 15,8 x 23 cm. Signed, dated and numbered in the negatives: “Frith E. No 71 1857” and “Frith 154”.
Originally a cutlery apprentice and later a grocer, Frith turned to photography in the early 1850s. Between 1856 and 1860, he undertook three major expeditions through Egypt and the Near East, making wet-collodion glass plate negatives in a portable darkroom and publishing the resulting albumen prints for an international audience. These two early Giza views belong to the foundational group from which Frith developed his celebrated Egyptian publications, combining compositional clarity with archaeological precision and an evocative sense of place. His work established a new model for photographic travel documentation, serving both scholarly interest in ancient monuments and the Victorian market for images of the Near East.
Seated nude with doves. Ca. 1910. Albumen print. 20,8 x 14,5 cm. Photographer’s studio stamp "Proprietà Artistica: Vincenzo Galdi, Via Sardegna, 55, Roma" and numbered "2421" in pencil on the verso.
Galdi’s studies of the female nude move deliberately between academic idealization and fin-de-siècle eroticism. In this poised studio composition, the seated model is accompanied by doves - traditional attributes of Venus - which lend the scene a lightly mythological register. The constructed pose and controlled illumination temper its sensuality with an almost sculptural clarity.
Female nude among foliage. Ca. 1900. Albumen print. 22,2 x 16,8 cm. Photographer’s "VINCENZO GALDI / Via Campania lett: B / ROMA" studio stamp and numbered "690" in pencil on the verso.
Galdi’s arrangement of foliage and patterned drapery creates a deliberately staged pastoral setting for the seated nude. The sitter’s relaxed, direct pose tempers the allusion to the academic life study with a strikingly modern intimacy, characteristic of Galdi’s Roman female nude studies.
Photographer: Étienne Carjat (1828-1906). Gioachino Rossini. 1862. Woodburytype, printed 1876, mounted to board. 23,8 x 19,1 cm (mount 34,4 x 25,2 cm). Printed below image: “Galerie Contemporaine, 126, boulevard de Magenta,” “Phot. Goupil et Cie.” and “Cliché Carjat, 10, rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette”; titled “ROSSINI.”
Before opening his Paris studio in 1861, Étienne Carjat was active as a journalist and caricaturist, and became one of the most perceptive portraitists of Second Empire artistic and intellectual life. His direct, closely framed compositions focus on the sitter’s face, bearing and psychological presence. This expressive likeness presents Gioachino Rossini, among the nineteenth century’s most celebrated composers, in a deliberately unembellished setting that lends his gaze and features a quietly commanding force.
Literatur: Galerie contemporaine, littéraire, artistique. Vol. 3, no. 24. Paris: Ludovic Baschet, 1877, n.p.
Photographer: Étienne Carjat (1828-1906). Charles Baudelaire. Ca. 1863. Woodburytype, printed 1877, mounted to board. 23,2 x 18,2 cm (mount 34,2 x 25 cm). Printed upper margin: "GALERIE CONTEMPORAINE"; below image: "126, boul. Magenta. – Paris," "Phot. Goupil et Cie." and "Cliché Carjat et Cie."; titled "CH. BAUDELAIRE" and captioned "Né à Paris en 1821, mort en 1867."
Carjat photographed Baudelaire on several occasions, but this closely framed 1863 likeness became the poet’s canonical photographic image. Baudelaire praised the result in a letter to Carjat of 6 October 1863. Published nine years after the poet’s death in Goupil’s Galerie contemporaine, littéraire, artistique, it brought this intensely direct portrait to a broad public among the series’ leading literary, artistic and political figures.
Literatur: Galerie contemporaine, littéraire, artistique. 3rd year, no. 1. Paris: Ludovic Baschet, 1878, n.p.
Photographer: Gaspard-Félix Tournachon Nadar (1820-1910). George Sand. 1864. Woodburytype, printed ca. 1876, mounted to board. 23,1 x 17,1 cm (mount 29,7 x 22,5 cm). Printed below image: “Galerie Contemporaine” and “Cliché Nadar”; titled “GEORGE SAND.”
Made during Nadar’s developing friendship with Sand, this 1864 portrait belongs to a group of sittings in which the novelist took a close interest. Before one appointment, she wrote that Nadar would remake her portrait “until he succeeds.” Against a plain background, the image concentrates on her face and distinctive striped dress, conveying the strength and dignity for which the celebrated writer was admired. Sand subsequently made Félix and Ernestine Nadar her preferred portraitists.
Literatur: Galerie contemporaine, littéraire, artistique. 1st year, 2nd series, no. 37. Paris: Ludovic Baschet, 1876, n.p.
Youth with laurel wreath. Ca. 1900. Salted paper print. 22,6 x 16,8 cm. Photographer’s "W. VON GLOEDEN / TAORMINA (SICILIA)" studio stamp and numbered "1590" in blue crayon on the verso.
Throughout his Taormina work, Gloeden used local models, outdoor settings, drapery and classical attributes to create photographs that move between portraiture and tableau. Wreaths, antique costume and architectural props allowed contemporary sitters to assume idealized, timeless identities. This close study distills the characteristic tension in his work between the individual presence of the model and the classicizing fiction of the scene.
Gloeden, Wilhelm von
Elderly man and youth at fountain
Los 4043
Schätzung
1.200€ (US$ 1,379)
Elderly man and youth at fountain. 1902. Salted paper print, printed 1909 or later. 17,7 x 22,6 cm. Faint violet photographer’s "W. VON GLOEDEN / TAORMINA (SICILIA) / PROPRIETÀ ARTISTICA" studio stamp and "GRANDE MEDAGLIA D’ORO / DAL MINISTERO PUBBLICA ISTRUZIONE / 1909" award stamp on the verso; further pencil annotations.
The staged setting of white drapery, garden foliage and an ornate fountain belongs to Gloeden’s classically inflected Taormina tableaux. Costume, pose and architecture transform the scene into an idealized vision of an imagined Mediterranean past.
Gloeden, Wilhelm von
Almond trees in blossom at Monte Ziretto, Taormina
Los 4044
Schätzung
1.000€ (US$ 1,149)
Almond trees in blossom at Monte Ziretto, Taormina. 1903. Albumen print. 22,5 x 16,8 cm. Blue-violet studio stamp on verso: “W. VON GLOEDEN / TAORMINA (Sicilia) / PROPRIETÀ ARTISTICA”; pencil annotation in upper left on verso.
This view, cataloged by Gloeden as no. 2645, captures Monte Ziretto above Castelmola in the hills behind Taormina at the height of the almond blossom. The carefully placed figures animate the secluded path and transform the keenly observed Sicilian landscape into a pastoral vision - an evocative counterpart to the Arcadian figure compositions for which Gloeden is best known.
Literatur: Wilhelm von Gloeden - Guglielmo Plüschow - Vincenzo Galdi. Paradis Sicilien: Paysages, Portraits, Nus 1890-1905. Paris: Au Bonheur du Jour, 2008, ill. p. 12.
Two children with a kid goat. Ca. 1909. Albumen print. 21,7 x 16,9 cm. Numbered "2255" in blue pencil on the verso.
This photograph belongs to the ethnographic strand of Gloeden’s Taormina practice, in which local sitters were presented for an international audience through an idealized vision of Sicilian rural life.
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© 2026 Galerie Gerda Bassenge
Galerie Bassenge
Erdener Str. 5A
14193 Berlin
Öffnungszeiten:
Montag bis Donnerstag, 10–18 Uhr,
Freitag, 10–16 Uhr
Telefon: +49 30 8938029-0
Fax: +49 30 8918025
E-Mail: info (at) bassenge.com
Impressum
Datenschutzerklärung
© 2026 Galerie Gerda Bassenge