Giorgio Sommer Albumen Photograph Pompeii Temple of Venus Tempio di Venere 1880s For Sale

An original 19th-century albumen photograph of the Temple of Venus at Pompeii, from the Naples studio of Giorgio Sommer, looking down the surviving colonnade toward Vesuvius on the horizon. The printed caption "POMPEI Tempio di Venere," the negative number 1269 and the studio credit "Sommer - Napoli" all appear in the lower margin. The columns march away from the camera in a long diagonal with their entablature still in place above them, and the excavated forum buildings spread out behind — the kind of receding-perspective view the Naples studios built their reputation on. The print is mounted on its original gray card and carries a previous owner's period pencil note reading "Italy – Pompeii – Exteriors," which suggests it came out of a traveler's assembled Grand Tour album. Warm sepia tonality throughout, typical of albumen paper of this age. An original photographic print, not a modern reproduction. Ships flat and protected in a rigid mailer.