Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville

c. 1867–78

Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville, c. 1867–78. Félix Bonfils (French, 1831–1885). Albumen print from glass plate negative; image: 38.1 x 48.3 cm (15 x 19 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William and Margaret Lipscomb 2021.207 French photographer Félix Bonfils settled with his wife and child in Beirut in 1867 and opened a photography studio which his family continued to operate until 1918. Their offerings included landscapes and cityscapes, portraits, and posed scenes including examples of Middle Eastern dress such as this one, which shows the full-body and face veils worn in public by some, although not all, Muslim women in public in Beirut. Many Westerners found the full veils worn by Muslim women in mid-nineteenth-century Beirut both fascinating and disturbing.