Antique Heads Excavated in Cyprus

1863–64

Not on view

The majority of these artfully arranged Cypriot heads were excavated during an 1862 expedition led by Charles-Jean-Melchior de Vogüé, who later donated them to the Louvre museum. Until recently, the photographer, Grasset d’Orcet, was known primarily for hundreds of wide-ranging articles that appeared during the last three decades of the nineteenth century, mostly in the Revue Britannique. Earlier in his life, in the 1840s, Grasset had pursued the study of law and then sculpture (under Élias Robert, in Paris). After inheriting a small fortune upon the death of his father in 1849, he embarked on a tour of the Mediterranean and eventually settled in Cyprus, where he received a consular post and remained until the mid – 1860s. An amateur archeologist, Grasset became the de facto host for several archeological missions to Cyprus, most notably the expedition led by Melchior de Vogüé. Grasset documented these sculptures, along with other Cypriot antiquities that he had personally collected, for reproduction in the January 23, 1864 issue of L’Illustration. Apart from a handful of related works, no other photographs by Grasset have come to light.

Artwork Details

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Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Antique Heads Excavated in Cyprus
Artist: Claude Sosthène Grasset d'Orcet (French, 1828–1900)
Date: 1863–64
Medium: Albumen silver print
Dimensions: Mount: 13 3/4 × 18 1/2 in. (34.9 × 47 cm)
Image: 8 5/16 × 10 3/4 in. (21.1 × 27.3 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2019
Object Number: 2019.352
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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