John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Hieroglyphics, the gods Anubis and Amun, 1853-1855
Waxed paper negative
10.9 x 16.9 cm
The report of Greene’s work in The Photographic and Fine Art Journal in 1854 refers to a technique of papier maché by which Greene managed to transform the intaglio of ancient hieroglyphics into more legible configurations in relief, making them easier to photograph. It is also possible that Greene used this process because the hieroglyphics were both too inaccessible and the light too dim where they were situated. Greene is believed to have worked from "squeezes" of carvings in the Hall of Beauties within the tomb of Seti I made by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, the Italian excavator of Egyptian archaeological sites, who discovered the tomb in 1818.
John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Venus de Milo on rooftop in Paris, 1852-1853
Waxed paper negative
31.4 x 24.3 cm
John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Tomb of the Christian Woman with false door, near Cherchell, Algeria, 1855-1856
Lightly coated salt print from a waxed paper negative
28.6 x 22.8 cm
Numbered "1000.30" in pencil on verso
From Weston Gallery label on verso: Believed to be one of only two known prints of this image. The other print is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art.
John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Landscape, Constantine, Algeria, 1855-1856
Lightly coated salt print from a paper negative
23.7 x 30.6 cm on 24.2 x 31.5 cm paper
From 1855-1856, Greene produced a series of images of Constantine, an ancient city dramatically perched on a mountaintop in Algeria. These were the last photographs he made before his death at the early age of 24. In the light of North Africa, Greene does not exactly represent places, even when he records houses, ruined aqueducts, roads, bridges or burial sites, he creates tonal maps. The lengthy exposure has smoothed out the water and blurred the details of a horse drawn cart stopped in the stream below.
John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
El-Kantara Bridge, Constantine, Algeria, 1855-1856
Lightly coated salt print from a paper negative
22.5 x 30.3 cm on 22.8 x 30.3 cm paper
Inscribed "Constantine" in pencil on verso
El-Kantara, a town located in Biskra Province Algeria, is most well-known for the eponymous gorge around which the Roman constructed bridge Greene has captured sits. Greene's trip to Algeria came at the very close of his life. His work in Egypt taught him how to build a composition and his photographs of this particular period feel more like tonal maps than mere representations of place.
John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Cleopatra's Needle, Alexandria, 1853-1854
Waxed paper negative
30.2 x 24.6 cm
John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
El-Kantara Bridge, Constantine, Algeria, 1855-1856
Lightly coated salt print from a paper negative
23.5 x 29.4 cm
From 1855-1856, Greene produced a series of images of Constantine, an ancient city dramatically perched on a mountaintop in Algeria, the last he made before his death at the early age of 24. In the light of North Africa, Greene doesn’t exactly represent places, even when he records houses, ruined aqueducts, roads, bridges or burial sites, he creates tonal maps. This late work is about feeling. In Constantine, dwellings on a mountain seem to be outcroppings of the rocks themselves. Young Greene was close to dying; he wanted his pictures to look like how he felt.
John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Pompey's Pillar, Alexandria, 1853-1854
Waxed paper negative
30.5 x 24.5 cm
John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Sphinx and Pyramid, Necropolis of Memphis, Giza, 1853-1854
Waxed paper negative with selectively applied pigment
24.4 x 31.3 cm
John Beasley Greene possibly in collaboration with Gustave Le Gray (American, born in France, 1832-1856 and French, 1820-1884))
Boulders, Forest of Fontainebleau, 1852-1853 or earlier
Waxed paper negative
24.8 x 31.5 cm
Gustave Le Gray began photographing the Forest of Fontainbleau in the late 1840s and in the foray created some of the most beautiful forest scenes in the history of art. His student, J.B Greene ventured into the same territory, most probably accompanied by his teacher. His exact mirroring of a view which Le Gray had already so skillfully rendered make the likelihood that some form of collaboration on this work existed between the two. While many of the photographs Greene produced in this setting betray a still ingénue-like quality, the resulting negative is as nuanced as it is confident in the artist's handling of both setting and perspective, rivaling in quality the work of his master.
John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Rooftops, Paris, 1852-1853 or earlier
Waxed paper negative
24.3 x 31.2 cm