Gabriel Lekegian (1853 – c. 1920), also known as G. Lékégian, was an
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
n painter and photographer, active in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
and
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
from the 1880s to the 1920s. Little is known about his life, but he left an important body of work under the name of his studio ''‘Photographie Artistique G. Lekegian & Cie’''. With a large number of now
historical photographs of
Ottoman Egypt
The Eyalet of Egypt (, ) operated as an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 to 1867. It originated as a result of the conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottomans in 1517, following the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17) and the a ...
, he documented the country at the turn of the 19th century. Among other collections, his photographs are held in the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
and the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, London.
Biography
![H](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/H.H._Princess_Nazli_%281906%29_-_TIMEA.jpg)
Around 1880, Lekegian was based in Constantinople, now
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
, and at the time the capital of the Ottoman Empire, where he was a student of the Italian
expatriate
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
painter
Salvatore Valeri
Salvatore Valeri (1856, Nettuno - 30 December 1946, Nettuno) was an Italian painter who spent much of his career as an art teacher in Turkey.
Biography
He studied painting at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. In 1882, he moved from Italy to the ...
. Working with
watercolours
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
, Lekegian produced a series of figurative and
genre studies
Genre studies is an academic subject which studies genre theory as a branch of general critical theory in several different fields, including art, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition studies.
Literary genre studies is a structu ...
in the detailed style of his teacher, displaying
Orientalist tendencies borrowed from Valeri and French
academic painter
Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie d ...
Jean-Léon Gerome. Lekegian's paintings were exhibited in Constantinople in 1881 and 1885 in London.
Very few of these, such as his painting of a palace guard or a woman with a water jug in Constantinople, are known to have survived.
Upon his move to Cairo, he apprenticed in one of the
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
or
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
photographic studio
A photographic studio is often a business owned and represented by one or more photographers, possibly accompanied by assistants and pupils, who create and sell their own and sometimes others’ photographs.
Since the early years of the 20th ce ...
s. After establishing his studio opposite the
Shepheard's Hotel
Shepheard's Hotel was the leading hotel in Cairo and one of the most celebrated hotels in the world from the middle of the 19th century until its destruction in 1952 during the Cairo Fire. Five years after the original hotel was destroyed, a new ...
in Cairo's European district, Lekegian positioned himself as an 'artistic' photographer, distinguishing himself and his work as aesthetically superior to his mainly Armenian,
French or Greek competitors, such as
Jean Pascal Sébah or the
Zangaki brothers.
[Jacobson 2007, p. 250]
![Ludwig Deutsch - The Scribe, 1904](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Ludwig_Deutsch_-_The_Scribe%2C_1904.jpg)
A successful businessman, Lekegian produced numerous
exotic images of the
Orient
The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...
that played up to the imagination of his predominantly European and American customers. Further, his photographs provided artistic documentation for Orientalist painters such as
Ludwig Deutsch, who created his paintings in his studio in Paris. As Chief Curator of Photography at the
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
,
Nissan N. Perez
Dr. Nissan Nisso Perez (born December 18, 1946) is a photography historian, researcher and curator. From 1977 until 2013, Perez was Chief Curator of the Noel and Harriette Levine Department of Photography at the Israel Museum, Israel Museum, Jerusa ...
, wrote, "the details in
masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...
and the
angle of view
The angle of view is the decisive variable for the visual perception of the size or projection of the size of an object.
Angle of view and perception of size
The perceived size of an object depends on the size of the image projected onto the ...
in Deutsch's paintings ''El Azhar - The Arab University in Cairo'' and ''The Scribe'' are doubtlessly comparable to Lekegian's photographs of the same places.
Lekegian became a favoured photographer for the
Egyptian royalty
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
, several of whom, such as
Princess Nazli, had their portraits taken by him. After he became the official photographer of the
Anglo-Egyptian army in 1883/84, Lekegian's business prospered even more.
[Hannavy, 2008, p. 840] He received commissions to illustrate books and to provide images of government building operations in the region. These images have been seen as Lekegian’s least known, but remarkable works as early forms of
documentary photography
Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life. It is typically undertaken as professional pho ...
.
Apart from famous views for the growing number of
tourists
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...
, such as
the Pyramids,
temples in Luxor and scenes of the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
, Lekegian also created numerous images of
historical buildings in Egypt, as well as scenes drawn from the daily life of soldiers,
bedouins
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arabs, Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert ...
and other Egyptians, including
photographs of people from Sudan. According to the Armenian Photography Foundation,
In his book ''New Egypt'' (1905), to which Lekegian had contributed photographs of buildings, native people and an
equestrian statue
An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...
of
Mohamed Ali, American
travel writer
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.
One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...
Amedée Baillot de Guerville (1869–1913) wrote: "There are very few good photographers in Egypt, and I should advise those amateurs who do not develop their own work to be very careful. I have had many plates and films absolutely ruined by ignoramuses calling themselves “prize photographers.” To those in Cairo I can thoroughly recommend either M. Lekégian or M.
Dittrich Dittrich is a variant of the German name Dietrich. It occurs as a surname of ethnic Germans in Silesia. Notable people with the surname include:
*Barbara Dittrich (born 1964), American politician
*Boris Dittrich (born 1955), Dutch politician and ...
, photographer to the Court." As Lekegian produced
dry-plate images from 10
'' x 8'' large formats up to
ultra large 20
'' x 16'' formats, ''New Egypt'' further wrote that he "has, besides some remarkable portraits, a unique collection of views both in large prints and in postcards."
Along with images by other well-known photographers, such as
Felice Beato
Felice Beato (1832 – 29 January 1909), also known as Felix Beato, was an Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. He is noted for his genre works, ...
,
Jean Pascal Sebah or the
Zangaki Brothers, his images were often published in albums showing touristic sites in Egypt. In the early 1920s, Lekegian's studio produced mainly
portrait
A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...
s and
postcard
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...
compilations from his old negatives, and it is believed that he closed down his business and retired soon after.
Recognition
![(Girl_in_ceremonial_dress](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/%28Girl_in_ceremonial_dress.%29.jpg)
A collection of his photographs of
ancient Egyptian sites near Cairo and
Luxor
Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''.
Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...
, as well as images of local people and events was published around 1880 under the title ''Photographs of Egypt showing Cairo, Luxor, and the Nile Banks''). Further, a library box with 58 unbound
albumen print
The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was published in January 1847 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, and was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative. It us ...
s measuring 22 x 28 cm on light blue
mounts, most of them titled in
French, numbered and signed "Photogr. Artistique G. Lekegian", is held in the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
. Similar albumen prints, mainly by Lekegian, were included in two albums with photographs of ancient and late 19th-century Egypt in 1910 by a German group of Orient travellers. These were edited in the 2011 book ''Ägypten: Eine Reise durch drei Zeiten; Bildband der frühen Orientfotografie. (Egypt: A journey through three times; Picture book of early Orient photography)''
At the 1889
International Exhibition
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
in Paris, Lekegian won a medal for 'Professional Artistic Photography',
and at the
World’s Columbian exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in Chicago in 1893, he was awarded the grand prize.
In 2010, the Municipal Medieval Museum of
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
, Italy, presented an exhibition titled ''Memoires d'Egypte'' with an accompanying catalogue of historical photographs of the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
by
Felice Beato
Felice Beato (1832 – 29 January 1909), also known as Felix Beato, was an Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. He is noted for his genre works, ...
,
Félix Bonfils, Andreas Reiser and Lekegian.
Lekegian's photographs are part of the permanent collection of the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, and the
Wellcome Collection
Wellcome Collection is a museum and library based at 183 Euston Road, London, displaying a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring "ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art". Founded in 2007, the Wellcome C ...
, London, the Swedish
Hallwyl Museum,
Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
Library in the Netherlands,
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...
's TIMEA - Travelers in the Middle East Archive and of the
Digital Collections
A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital ...
of the New York Public Library.
Gallery
File:Camel corps of the Anglo-Egyptian army by Lekegian.jpg, Camel corps of the Anglo-Egyptian army
File:Village by the Nile near Gizeh, Egypt, by Lekegian.jpg, Village by the Nile near Gizeh
File:KITLV A749 - Arabische buikdanseressen te Egypte, KITLV 111009.tiff, Group of belly dancers
File:Encampment of Beduins (cropped).jpg, Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
encampment
File:Sacca (service d'eau a domicile)..jpg, Water seller
File:Sudanais de la tribu Galieh..jpg, Sudanese man of the Shaigiya tribe
The Shaigiya, Shaiqiya, Shawayga or Shaykia () are an Arab or Arabised Nubian tribe. They are part of the Sudanese Arabs and are also one of the three prominent Sudanese Arabs tribes in North Sudan, along with the Ja'alin and Danagla. The tribe ...
File:KITLV A749 - Arabische bedelaar te Egypte, KITLV 111032.tiff, Beggar
File:KITLV A749 - Arabische vrouw te Egypte, KITLV 101592.tiff, Woman from Upper Egypt
See also
Other 19th-century photographers in Ottoman Egypt:
*
Francis Frith
Francis Frith (also spelled Frances Frith, 7 October 1822 – 25 February 1898) was an English photographer of the Middle East and many towns in the United Kingdom.
Frith was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, attending Quaker schools at Ackwort ...
*
Pascal Sébagh
*
Jean Pascal Sébah
*
Zangaki Brothers
*
Hippolyte Arnoux
References
Bibliography
*
* Perez, Nissan N. (1988) ''Focus East: Early Photography in the Near East 1839-1885''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., p.190
*
* Jacobson, Ken (2007). ''Odalisques & Arabesques: Orientalist Photography 1839–1925''. London: Quaritch. ISBN 9780955085253, OCL
883254420 p. 249–250
* p. 840
*
*
*
*
External links
* Photographs b
G. Lekegianon
Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world.
It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...
Photographs by G. Lekegianin the Digital Collections of the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
Photographs by G. Lekegianin the online collection of the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, London
Photographs by G. Lekegianat Rice University Digital Scholarship Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lekegian, Gabriel
Armenian photographers
Egyptian people of Armenian descent
1853 births
1920 deaths
Photography in Egypt
Early photographers in Egypt