Cleveland Museum of Art

Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville

Félix Bonfils

Date

c. 1867–78

Medium

Albumen print from glass plate negative

Culture

France

Department

Photography

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

French photographer Félix Bonfils settled with his wife and child in Beirut in 1867 and opened a photography studio which his family continued to operate until 1918. Their offerings included landscapes and cityscapes, portraits, and posed scenes including examples of Middle Eastern dress such as this one, which shows the full-body and face veils worn in public by some, although not all, Muslim women in public in Beirut. Many Westerners found the full veils worn by Muslim women in mid-nineteenth-century Beirut both fascinating and disturbing.

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