Autopsy of the First Crocodile Onboard, Upper Egypt

1852

Not on view

This is perhaps the world’s first traveler snapshot, made on the deck of a traditional Nile vessel almost forty years before hand-held cameras, shutters, and fast film made the genre a possibility. In 1852, whether for business or simply on a young man’s grand tour, Benecke traveled throughout Egypt and the Mediterranean with a camera and a surprisingly humane spirit. The photographers who traveled there shortly before and after him, including Maxime Du Camp, Félix Teynard, and J. B. Greene, focused almost exclusively on the ancient monuments and landscape. Benecke, instead, documented the contemporary world with such keen sensitivity that his photographs, beyond their ethnographic value, present intimate and unaffected portraits of the region’s inhabitants.

Artwork Details

Title: Autopsy of the First Crocodile Onboard, Upper Egypt
Artist: Ernest Benecke (German (born England), 1817–1894)
Date: 1852
Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative
Dimensions: Image: 17.5 x 21.3 cm (6 7/8 x 8 3/8 in.)
Mount: 31.5 x 45.1 cm (12 3/8 x 17 3/4 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, William Talbott Hillman Foundation Gift, 2005
Object Number: 2005.100.262
Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

By Ernest Benecke

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Mt. Liban. Tronc d'un des Cèdres de Salomon, Ernest Benecke French, Salted paper print (Blanquart-Évrard process) from paper negative — Mt. Liban. Tronc d'un des Cèdres de Salomon
Ernest Benecke
Printer Imprimerie photographique de Blanquart-Évrard, à Lille
1850–53

Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French — Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century

The Refectory of the Imperial Asylum at Vincennes, Charles Nègre French, Salted paper print from glass negative — The Refectory of the Imperial Asylum at Vincennes
Charles Nègre
1858–59

[Children from the Village of Kalabshah, Nubia], Ernest Benecke French, Salted paper print from paper negative — [Children from the Village of Kalabshah, Nubia]
Ernest Benecke
1852

Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, Lithograph printed in four colors; three sheets of wove paper — Moulin Rouge: La Goulue
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Printer Affiches Américaines, Charles Lévy
1891

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please contact us using the form below. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.

Send feedback

Content Notice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world, and our online collection reflects ongoing work conducted over the course of our more than 150-year history. You may encounter objects or images that may be inappropriate for some viewers or information that may be outdated.