One of the earliest photographers of the Holy Land

Ostheim, Otto von. [Four photographic panoramas of Jerusalem].

€ 12,500.00

Four original albumen photographs showing panoramas of Jerusalem, including the "Mosque d'Omar" (the Dome of the Rock, or Qubbat as-Sakra) and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as they stood in the middle of the 19th century.

Little is known about the Austrian photographer Otto von Ostheim, despite the numerous beautiful photos of the Holy Land and Middle East that he took during his travels. A former cavalry officer, at some point he retired to become a photographer with a studio in Jerusalem. He accompanied, as official photographer, tours of the Levant undertaken by the Count of Paris, the Duke of Chartres and the Count of Chambord.

Only one of the four is visibly signed and dated in-plate (the "Mosque d'Omar"), and its date quite early year of 1860, a full decade earlier than the later and better-known photographers of the Holy Land who began work in the 1870s.