Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes materials relating to his expeditions to and publications on the Dead Sea region, 1864-1874

Summary

Creators:

Luynes, Honoré d'Albert, duc de, 1802-1867, Vignes, Louis, 1831-1896, Sauvaire, Henri Joseph, 1831-1896, Nègre, Charles, 1820-1880, Combe, Gustave, 1832-1905, Chaplin, Thomas J., Doctor, 1830-1904, Vogüé, Melchior, marquis de, 1829-1916, Placet, Emile, 1834-, Sargent, Alfred Louis, 1828-, Bergheim, P., and Lartet, Louis (Louis Marie Hospice), 1840-1899

Abstract:

The archive documents the expedition led by Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes to the Dead Sea and the Moab plateau in 1864 and the second expedition that he funded in 1866 to explore the Crusader castles and other sites of southern Jordan. It also documents the production, under Luynes's initial direction of the complete account of the expeditions and their findings, published as Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra, et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain (1874; three volumes and atlas). Materials created during the expeditions include glass and paper negatives and photographic prints by photographers Louis Vignes, Henri Sauvaire, Peter Bergheim, and G. Jardin, and travel journals and other documents written by Luynes, Vignes, and naturalist Gustave Combe. Related to the making of the final illustrated publication are photogravures and test prints by Charles Nègre, Gustave Dujardin, and Émile Placet, as well as business correspondence, documents, and receipts.

Extent:

58.3 Linear Feet (38 boxes)

Language:

Collection materials are in French with some English.

Preferred citation:

Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes materials relating to his expeditions to and publications on the Dead Sea region, 1864-1874, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2019.M.20.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/archives2019m20

Background

Scope and content:

In 1864, Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes funded and led an exploratory expedition to the Dead Sea and the Moab Plateau, the mountainous area east of the Dead Sea famous for its ancient civilizations and antiquities as well as for its unique natural environment. The first of two expeditions that he ultimately sponsored, this multi-pronged endeavor was the earliest comprehensive study of the Dead Sea basin's topographic and climatic features as well as its natural resources and fossils. The scientific questions relating to the Dead Sea that Luynes hoped to answer ranged from the geography, hydrography, and depression of the Dead Sea to its depth and altitude, and to whether the supposed link the Dead Sea has with the Red Sea could be examined. The expedition also included the documentation of archaeological sites and the collection of antiquities including two major objects: the sarcophagus of King Eshmunazar II (sixth century BCE) from the necropolis of Sidon and the Shihan Stele (1200-800 BCE) from Figou on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.

For the expedition Luynes recruited naval lieutenant Louis Vignes, who had traveled extensively to the Eastern Mediterranean and was trained in photography, as the official photographer of the expedition. He also enlisted geologist Louis Lartet and naturalist Gustave Combe to survey the geophysical and natural landscape. The team navigated the length and breadth of the Dead Sea in a custom-built collapsible metal boat. After the explorers visited Petra, Luynes left the expedition due to poor health, while the remaining members headed north to explore Palmyra and other sites.

The expedition was also significant for pioneering the use of photography as a scientific recording tool. While previous expeditions to the Middle East had relied on drawing to provide a visual record of the landscapes, sites of historical or geographical significance, and living and extinct cities they encountered, Luynes employed photography, which he believed would bring an unprecedented degree of accuracy to their visual documentation. During the expedition, some areas along the banks of the Jordan River and around the Dead Sea were photographed for the first time. Photographs taken at Jerash, one of the cities of the Hellenistic Decapolis and later a key Roman junction along the caravan route leading to the Mediterranean, are among the first made of this important ancient city and predate the excavation of the site in the early twentieth century. Other sites photographed for the first time include the Nabatean capital Petra; the Hellenistic sanctuary at Banyas; the Nahr-al-Kalb, a strategic crossroads with inscriptions left by invading military forces from the Assyrians to Napoleon; the site believed to be Mount Nebo, from where Moses reputedly surveyed the promised land and later died; and the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.

Luynes's interest in the largely unexplored Biblical, Roman, Islamic, and medieval Christian sites of the region led him to send architect Charles Mauss and amateur photographer Henri-Joseph Sauvaire on a second expedition in 1866, this time to Transjordan to explore and record the Crusader castles once part of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, especially Kerak Castle at Al-Karak and Montréal in Shoubak.

Luynes planned to publish an extensive account of his expeditions using the textual and visual accounts generated during their explorations. In 1865, he commissioned the photographer Charles Nègre to produce photogravures of the photographs taken on the expeditions to illustrate the work. Luynes died in 1867 before the work was completed. His Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain was published posthumously by his grandson under the supervision of the Comte de Vogüé in installments between 1871 and 1875. It comprised three volumes of text: v. 1. Relation du voyage par M. le Duc de Luynes; v. 2. De Petra à Palmyre par M. Vignes and Voyage de Jérusalem à Karak et à Chaubak par MM. Mauss et Sauvaire; v. 3. Géologie par M. L. Lartet; and an Atlas containing illustrations and maps. Volume 1 comprises Luynes's travel journal from the 1864 expedition. Volume 2 contains Louis Vignes's account of that expedition and includes notes on altitude, latitude, longitude, meteorological observations, and other measurements and observations of the sites they explored. The second part of Volume 2 is dedicated to the 1866 expedition undertaken by Mauss and Sauvaire to explore and record the Crusader castles in Transjordan. Volume 3 is devoted to the geological and paleontological findings made by Lartet on the 1864 expedition. Throughout the finding aid, Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain is referred to as Voyage and its atlas is referred to as Atlas.

The archive comprises the written and visual documentation of Luynes's expeditions as well as materials generated during the making of the Voyage.

Series I comprises materials created during the two expeditions. Included here are travel accounts and notes written by Luynes, photographer Louis Vignes, and other expedition members, as well as photographs, including glass and paper negatives and photographic prints, made by Vignes, Peter Bergheim, and G. Jardin.

Series II comprises materials related to the execution of the plates and illustrations for Luynes's Voyage. Included are materials related to Charles Nègre's translation of Louis Vignes's photographs from the 1864 expedition into photogravure; materials related to the engraving of Henri Sauvaire's photographs from the 1866 expedition; and materials related to additional visual elements of the publication including plans, maps, and small inter-text illustrations.

Biographical / historical:

Honoré Théodore Paul Joseph d'Albert, duc de Luynes (1802-1867) was a humanist, antiquarian, collector, and philanthropist with deep interdisciplinary interests. A member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Luynes studied and collected antiquities of the Greco-Roman world, and was especially interested in those from Cyprus, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Italy. He also engaged in scientific pursuits in the fields of chemistry, geology, and newly developing photographic technologies. After serving as deputy director of the Louvre from 1825 to 1828, Luynes traveled to southern Italy with architect Joseph-Frédéric Debacq. In 1829, he cofounded the Istituto di corrispondenza archeologica (now Deutsches Archäologisches Institut) in Rome with Eduard Gerhard. In 1835, Luynes sponsored the French section of the institute and its journal Nouvelles annales de l'Institut archéologique, for which he was awarded the Prussian Pour le mérite für Wissenschaft und Künste in 1853. Luynes authored more than 20 books on topics ranging from archeology to chemistry.

Luynes's strong desire to record all aspects of the Dead Sea basin – biological, climatological, historical, and archaeological – led to his sponsorship of an expedition in 1864 to that region which included himself, naturalist Louis Lartet, physician Gustave Combe, and photographer Louis Vignes. Luynes accompanied the expedition as far as Petra. The expedition covered both the west and east sides of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea and, after the duke's departure, continued north to Beirut and Palmyra. In addition to mapping the Dead Sea area, the expedition made significant contributions to the geological and paleontological knowledge of the region and to an understanding of the chemical composition of the lake's waters. These observations, along with Vignes's photographs from the Dead Sea area, were posthumously published in the duke's account of the expedition, Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra, et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain (1874), eight years after Luynes's death.

In 1866, Luynes's continued interest in the largely unexplored Biblical, Roman, Islamic, and medieval Christian sites of the region led him to send the architect Charles Mauss, who was then directing the restoration of the Crusader church of Saint Anne and the cupola of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and diplomat and amateur photographer Henri-Joseph Sauvaire on a second expedition, this time to Transjordan to explore and record the Crusader castles once part of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, especially Kerak Castle at Al-Karak and Montréal in Shoubak.

Luynes's antiquarian interests aligned with his scientific interests, especially those related to photography. He was particularly interested in the quality and stability of the photographic image and in the successful reproduction of photographs. In 1856, he sponsored a photography competition through the Société française de photographie that offered two awards: a 2,000-franc prize for the invention of a printing process that achieved stable, high quality images (image deterioration due to fading was a common problem with the salted paper prints produced at the time), and an 8,000-franc prize for a simplified photomechanical process for reproducing photographs in publications that did not require retouching and that could be created in large numbers. The initial competition period was extended when none of the submissions achieved the goals Luynes and the prize committee had set. The choice eventually came down to Charles Nègre's photogravure process and Alphonse Poitevin's lithographic process. Although Luynes preferred the results of Nègre's process and had already commissioned him to illustrate his Voyage, the jury felt that Nègre's method was too difficult, and they were critical of the retouching of the engravings Luynes had requested. In 1867, the prize was finally awarded to Poitevin.

Luynes donated his collection of ancient coins, medals, gems, and painted Greek vases to the Département des monnaies, médailles et antiques of the Bibliothèque Nationale (BNF) in 1862. His personal library of 4,000 volumes is also held by the BNF. He died on the day of his 65th birthday, while he was in Italy providing political and moral support to the French army fighting on the side of the Pope against the Risorgimento forces led by Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Sources consulted:

Aubenas, S., and Poivert. M. D'encre et de charbon: le concours photographique du duc de Luynes, 1856-1867: Bibliothèque nationale de France, passage Colbert, Galerie de photographie, 27 avril-28 mai 1994. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France: 1994.

Blau, D. Henri Sauvaire (1831-1896): Voyage d'exposition à Hébron, Karak, Djafar, El-Heca, Chaubak, Dausak, Twahneì et Zatt-Rass. https://issuu.com/danielblau5/docs/buch_sauvaire_90dpi.

Foliot, Philippe. "Louis Vignes and Henry Sauvaire, Photographers on the Expeditions of the Duc de Luynes." History of Photography, 14.3 (1990).

_______. "Vignes, Sauvaire, Placet, Nègre and the Duc de Luynes." Art of the Photogravure, https://photogravure.com/highlights/vinges-sauvaire-placet-negre-and-the-duke.

Green, Cedric. "A Short History of Electro Etching and Photography." Nontoxicprint, https://www.nontoxicprint.com/historyofelectroetching.htm.

Katzman, Mark. Art of the Photogravure. https://photogravure.com.

Lewis, Jacob Warren. "Charles Nègre in Pursuit of the Photographic." Order No. 3547915, Northwestern University, 2012. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/charles-nègre-pursuit-photographic/docview/1282365346/se-2.

Luynes, Honoré d'Albert, duc de. Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, [1874?].

Paviot, Alain. Le voyage du Duc de Luynes: photographies de Louis Vignes, 6 mars-13 mai 1980: voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra, et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain, février-juin 1864: Galerie Octant. Paris: Galerie Octant, 1984.

Poggi, Isotta. "Acquisition Approval Form for 'Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes (French, 1802-1867) et al., Archive of the exploratory mission to the Dead Sea, Petra, and the left bank of the Jordan River (Palestine, 1860s).'," accession no. 2019.M.20, February 21, 2019.

Acquisition information:

Acquired in 2019.

Processing information:

Beth Ann Guynn began processing the collection and writing the finding aid in January 2020. Work was halted due to the pandemic in March 2020 and resumed in August 2021. Karen Meyer-Roux provided synopses of selected documents and letters.

Arrangement:

The archive is arranged in two series: Series I. Materials documenting the expeditions, 1864-1866; and Series II. Materials related to the publication of Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain, 1864-1874.

Physical location:

Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related resources

Related material:

The repository holds a substantial body of material related the Duc de Luynes's 1864 and 1866 expeditions.

Several collections contain materials related to Vignes's photographic output during the 1864 expedition. Of particular note is an album of his photographs, Vues de Phénicie, de Judée, des pays de Moab et de Petra photographiées par M. Vignes lieutenant de vaisseau pendant son voyage, en 1864, avec le duc de Luynes de Beyrouth à la mer Rouge et son retour avec M. Lartet de Jérusalem à Damas par la rive gauche du Jourdain, accession no. 2012.R.14.

Photographic reproductions of two maps drawn by Vignes with assistance from Dr. Gustave Combe are found in Louis Vignes maps from the duc de Luynes's expedition to the Dead Sea, accession no. 2015.R.16.

Thirty-three loose photogravure plates made by Charles Nègre after Vignes's photographs and published in Luynes's Voyage, are contained in the Photographs of the Middle East and North Africa collection, accession no. 2008.R.3, Box 13. Two versions of a view from Mar Saba (a two-part photographic panorama by Vignes and a photogravure after the panorama by Nègre) are located in the Joachim Bonnemaison collection of panorama photographs, accession no. 98.R.19, Box 12, items 14 and 15.

Finally, a self-portrait that Vignes took at age 28, five years before he accompanied Luynes to the Dead Sea, forms part of the Louis Vignes self-portrait and portraits of naval officers, accession number 2016.R.40.

Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra, et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain par M. le duc de Luynes; œuvre posthume publiée par ses petits-fils sous la direction de M. le comte de Vogüé, 1874, id no. 2850-401, is the publication resulting from the expedition (three volumes of text and a volume of plates).

Alternative form available:

The collection was digitized by the repository in 2022 and the material can be viewed online:

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2019m20

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Geology -- Jordan
Scientific expeditions -- Dead Sea (Israel and Jordan)
Castles -- Jordan
Photographs, Original
Albumen prints -- Jordan -- 19th century
Salted paper prints -- Jordan -- 19th century
Glass plate negatives -- Jordan -- 19th century
Paper negatives -- Jordan -- 19th century
Photogravures (prints) -- France -- 19th century

Places:

Dead Sea (Israel and Jordan) -- Description and travel
Jordan -- Description and travel

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Terms of access:

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Preferred citation:

Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes materials relating to his expeditions to and publications on the Dead Sea region, 1864-1874, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2019.M.20.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/archives2019m20

Location of this collection:

Getty Research Institute, Special Collections

1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100

Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US

Contact:

(310) 440-7390

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