Jane Dieulafoy (1851–1916)

In Varamin: June 1881
Repository: Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), Paris

In the fields of Iranian studies and Persian art, Jane Dieulafoy (1851–1916) is well-known as a French explorer, writer, collector, and amateur historian and archaeologist (fig. 1–2). In 1881–82, Jane and her husband Marcel spent a year traveling around Iran and parts of Iraq. Their itinerary combined land and water routes and took them from modern-day Armenia into the province of Azerbaijan, across northern Iran toward Tehran, south through the central Iranian plateau (Varamin, Qom, Kashan, Esfahan), into Fars province (Shiraz and Persepolis), across the Persian Gulf from Bushehr to Khorramshahr (Mohammerah), and into Iraq (Karbala, Ctesiphon) and Khuzestan (Susa) via the Tigris and Karun (see her map).

Throughout the journey, Dieulafoy took detailed notes and photographs. Some of the last were transformed into woodcuts and soon published incrementally alongside her text in Le Tour du Monde, a popular weekly devoted to travel. In 1884, Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848–96) granted the Dieulafoys permission to excavate Susa, which unfolded over two seasons in 1885 and 1886 and saw the transport of most finds to Paris. In 1887, Jane Dieulafoy published La Perse, a luxurious travelogue about the 1881–82 trip illustrated with over 300 woodcuts “d’après les photographies de l’auteur” (after the photographs of the author). These woodcuts have been used in many scholarly studies, and her original photographs have often been presumed lost. In fact, they were (are) well preserved inside her photography albums acquired by the Bibliothèque d’Art et Archéologie after Marcel’s death in 1920 (fig. 3). In October 2021, the Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA) announced the complete digitization of all six of Dieulafoy’s albums.

Video 1. Detailed filming of the Emamzadeh Yahya photographs in Perse 1, 4 Phot 18 (1), p. 65–66. Video by Keelan Overton, May 2024. This footage is uncut and unedited (just looking). The video will take time to load here. For much smoother viewing, please visit our YouTube channel.

The rediscovery and digitization of Dieulafoy’s photographs has had a major impact on the viability and use of her visual documentation in many fields (see our main essay). Her photographs not only omit the creative liberties of the later woodcuts but often outnumber what was reproduced in her publications. In the case of Varamin, the couple spent a week in the then village (June 15–21, 1881), and Dieulafoy soon published ten woodcuts in Le Tour and La Perse. Her photo album Perse 1 reveals, however, that she in fact took twenty-nine photographs in Varamin, meaning triple the archive (see my recent article). Another benefit of Dieulafoy’s photographs is that her prints (positives) remain in situ on their original album pages, versus loose or dispersed. In addition to providing a relatively chronological memento of the 1881-82 trip, they illustrate Dieulafoy’s curation of her generally small prints (presuming she made the albums, which is likely). In sum, what survives is not just the photograph but the photographer’s memories. It remains to be seen if Dieulafoy’s dry collodion glass plates will ever be found.

Video 2. View of La Salle Labrouste, Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), Paris. Video by Keelan Overton, May 2024.

Practical resources:

• Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), 2 Rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, France (map)
• INHA website
• Digitizations of Dieulafoy’s albums, Perse 1-6

Keelan Overton Independent scholar and Director of the exhibition

Citation: Keelan Overton, “Jane Dieulafoy (1851–1916).” Photographers entry in The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin: An Online Exhibition of an Iranian Shrine, directed and edited by Keelan Overton. 33 Arches Productions, January 15, 2025. Host: Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online.