Felix bonfils - Worshippers at the Western Wall. c. 1870

Felix bonfils - Worshippers at the Western Wall. c. 1870

Felix bonfils - A photograph of worshipers at the Western Wall, c.1870. The photograph shows men from various communitys, women with shawl sitting on the ground, and children, praying at the Western Wall (without a partition between them). Some in worn clothes. (As can be seen the boy standing in the center is barefoot). One of the first Photographs of worshipers at the first Western Wall ever taken. c. 1870.

At the bottom left sign in the plate 'bonfils', at the bottom right the caption in French: "Jerusalem Mur ou les Juifs vont pleurer" - "Jerusalem, the wall where the Jews lament".

Felix Bonfis [1831-1885], The great 19th-century photographer of the Land of Israel "What is unique about Bonfis' work is the rare quality of the photographs. The landscape, even the most sterile, becomes an artist-created work by the uncompromising angle of photography" [First Eretz Israel Photography edited by Eli Schiller and Menachem Levin, p. 92]. In the foreword to the album "Memories from the East" (published in 1877, one of Bonfils' most famous works that included hundreds of original photos of the Holy Land and the Orient), the president of the French Society for Literature and Science wrote: "The photos of F. Bonfils are one of the greatest achievements of our generation ... the man who took upon himself an expansive work Made an unbelievably important service to science with countless risks ...".

Size: 28x23 cm. Very good condition.