Désiré Charnay 1828-1915

Daniel Wolf Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, 1978

Sotheby's New York, 12 October 2000, Sale 7518, Lot 59

Acquired by Margaret W. Weston from the above

Monterey Museum of Art, Passion and Precision: Photographs from the Collection of Margaret W. Weston, January - April 2003

Another print of this image:

Keith Davis, Désiré Charnay: Expeditionary Photographer (Albuquerque, 1981), fig. 16 (cropped)

The present photograph was originally part of the album of 49 photographs entitled Cités et Ruines Américaines, which included views of the ancient ruins at Mitla, Palenque, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, and Uxmal.  Sponsored by the French government, Charnay traveled to Mexico between 1857 and 1860 to document the archeological sites of Pre-Columbian civilizations.  Pictured here are the Grupo de las Columnas ('Group of the Columns'), a former palace in Mitla, believed to have been used for ritual practices by high priests.  Intact copies of Cités et Ruines Américaines have been located in the following institutional collections: The New York Public Library; The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid; and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal.