Figure 1: “Une Beauté Copte”(Coptic Beauty) by the Armenian photographer Georges Legrain.
In 1914, an interesting book was published, “Louqsor sans les Pharaons: légendes et chansons populaires de la Haute Égypte”[1] (Luxor without the Pharaohs: Legends and Folk Songs of Upper Egypt) by Georges Legrain. The book contained 100 photographs of excellent quality. Georges Legrain (1865 – 1917[2]) was a French Egyptologist and writer.[3] He spent long years excavating in Luxor, particularly in the Temple of Karanak, and died in Luxor.
Figure 2: “Louqsor sans les Pharaons: légendes et chansons populaires de la Haute Égypte” by the French archaeologist Georges Legrain (1914).
One of the photographs Georges Legrain included in his book is that of a Coptic girl, which he titled “Une Beauté Copte”(Coptic Beauty). This photograph, as the rest in his book, was taken by the distinguished[4] Armenian photographer, Gabriel Lekegian, who set up his studio in Cairo in 1887 (near the Shepherds Hotel), and was frequented by the rich and influential.
[1] Louqsor sans les Pharaons: légendes et chansons populaires de la Haute Égypte, recuellies par G. Legrain (Brussels and Paris, 1914).
[2] Born in Paris and died in Luxor.
[3] Some of his publications, in addition to the book we are taking our photograph from, include:
i. Jacques de Morgan; Urbain Bouriant; Georges Legrain; Gustave Jéquier; A. Barsanti, Catalogue monuments et inscriptions de l’Egypte antique, 3 volumes (De la frontière de Nubie à Kom Ombos, Kom Ombos), Wien: Wood-live, to 1894-1909.
ii. Morgan, Jacques de ; Legrain, Georges, Fouilles à Dahchour, 2 volumes, Wien: Wood-live, 1895, 1903.
iii. Legrain, Georges, L’aile north you pylône d’Aménophis III A Karnak (Paris: Leroux, 1902).
iv. Legrain, Georges, Statues et statuettes de rois et de particuliers, 3 volumes, Le Caire: Imprimerie de l’Inst. Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1906-1925, (Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes Musée de Caire).
v. Friedrich Preisigke, Ägyptische und griechische Inschriften und Graffiti aus den Steinbrüchen des Gebel Silsile (Oberägypten): nach den Zeichnungen von Georges Legrain (Strassburg: Truebner, 1915).
vi. Legrain, Georges, Les Temples de Karnak (Bruxelles: Vromant, 1929).
vii. Legrain, Georges, Une Famille copte de strike Haute-Egypte (Brussels, 1945).
[4] He was awarded in 1892 the Gold Medal at the International Photography Exhibition in Paris; and, in 1893, the Grand Prize at the International Exhibition in Chicago.
