Views and scenes of China, 1860-1900

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Summary

Title:
Views and scenes of China
Dates:
1860-1900
Creators:
Li, Hongzhang, 1823-1901, Champion, Paul, 1838-after 1877, Watson, James Crombie, Major, 1833-1908, Lai, Fong, approximately 1839-1890, Liang, Shitai, Kung, Tai, and Pow Kee Studio
Abstract:
This group of 22 albumen prints of China includes nine images from Shanghai, four from Hankou, three from Tianjin, two from Guangzhou, two from Hong Kong, and one each from Anting, Ningbo, Xiamen, Beijing, and Nanjing. Included are photographs made by British military personnel and other European photographers, as well as Chinese photographers and studios. Photographers include Paul Champion, St. Julian Hugh Edwards, Lai Fong, Liang Shitai, Kung Tai, Pow Kee Studio, and Major James Crombie Watson.
Extent:
2 Linear Feet 1 box (22 photographic prints)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Views and scenes of China, 1860-1900, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2006.R.1.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2006r1

Background

Scope and content:

This group of 22 albumen prints of China includes nine images from Shanghai, four from Hankou, three from Tianjin, two from Guangzhou, two from Hong Kong, and one each from Anting, Ningbo, Xiamen, Beijing, and Nanjing. Included are photographs made by British military personnel and other European photographers, as well as Chinese photographers and studios. Several of the photographs capture aspects of the European presence in China in the nineteenth century.

Photographs from Shanghai include two taken by a Lieutenant Colonel E. Milsom in 1868: one is a view of the tea house near the City God temple (Cheng huang miao); the other is a view of a Shanghai-area pagoda and temple showing damage sustained in the Taiping Rebellion. A photograph of the Ting-Wong guardians of the portal, Hong Kong, is by Lai Fong. The remaining six photographs are by unidentified photographers. A studio photograph depicting a staged "demonstration" of ivory carving dates between 1860 and 1870, while one of a Shanghai street barber dates to the 1870s. From between 1890 and 1899 there are two prints (one hand-colored), of the Guangzhou guild compound in the city's International Settlement, and two views of the water tower in Kiangsu Road, the first high-rise concrete structure in China.

Three photographs taken in Hankou between 1875 and 1880 show tea being packed and shipped for export by a Western trading company. Also from the Hankou area is a view of a pailou, or commemorative arch, with a city gate in the distance, taken in the 1860s or 1870s.

A view inside Beijing's Qianmen gate by the French photographer, Paul Champion, dates to 1865.

Picturesque views include the "Lucky Rock" in Xiamen, attributed to St. Julian Hugh Edwards (ca. 1870) and a view of cows in the former village of Wong Nai Chong near Hong Kong from between 1880 and 1890. A view of a Confucian temple on the Qinhuai River, Nanjing, was taken by Pow Kee in the 1870s.

The informal (i.e. non-official) portrait of Li Hongzhang, viceroy of Zhili, was made by Liang Shitai in 1879, while two views of the viceroy's state barges, taken in 1894, are unattributed. The formal group portrait of the Anting taotai, or circuit intendent, with his mother and two wives, was made by Kung Tai in 1877 or 1878. An image of the militia under the command of Colonel Cooke, the commander of the Anglo-Chinese force at Ningbo, was taken by Major James Crombie Watson around 1870.

Biographical / historical:

The collection contains photographs by several makers including Paul Champion, St. Julian Hugh Edwards, Lai Fong, Liang Shitai, Kung Tai, Pow Kee Studio, and Major James Crombie Watson.

Chemical engineer and amateur photographer Paul Champion (1838-1884), traveled through China from 1865 to 1866 under the auspices of the Société zoologique d'Acclimatation which sought flora and fauna exchange and other trade opportunities with China. Champion's stereoviews were published by Charles Gaudin, B.K. Editeur, Paris (A. Block) as the series Chine & Japon, Asiatic Views, China and Vues de Chine.

The American photographer, St. Julian Hugh Edwards (1838-1903), was based in Amoy (Xiamen) starting around 1861. He was likely the first photographer to practice in Taiwan.

Kung Tai (Gong Tai) flourished from the 1870s to 1890s in Shanghai. His studio was noted for its mulit-plate panoramas of the Shanghai Bund.

Lai Fong (ca.1839 to 1890) operated a photography in Hong Kong from at least 1870, and possibly as early as 1859, and was known for his portraiture and landscapes. Lai used 'Afong' as his commercial name, and the Afong Studio remained in business until the 1940s.

Liang Shitai (flourished 1870s and 1880s; also known as See Tay), a Cantonese photographer who began his career as a painter, specialized in portraits of Qing dynasty officials and elites. He opened a studio in Hong Kong in the early 1870s. By 1876 he had relocated to Shanghai and he then moved to Tianjin in the 1880s. Shitai's photographs incorporate the traditional styles and aesthetics of Chinese painting and his portraits are compositionally and stylistically linked to the canon of Chinese Imperial portraiture.

Pow Kee (Bao Ji zhaoxiangguan) established a studio in Hankow by at least 1884. By 1888, the studio had moved to Nanjing. It was re-established in Shanghai in the 1890s, as Pow Kee & Sons.

Major James Crombie Watson (1833, Tasmania, Australia-1908, Ningbo, China), was an officer in the Anglo-Chinese Artillery. He moved to Nigbo in 1862 where he worked for the Chinese government as the superintendent of police.

Sources consulted:

Bennett, Terry. History of Photography in China 1842–1860. London: Bernard Quaritch, 2009.

Bennett, Terry. History of Photography in China: Chinese Photographers 1844–1879. London: Bernard Quaritch, 2013.

Bickers, Robert. Historical Photographs of China. https://www.hpcbristol.net

Bradbury, Joyce. Forgiven but Not Forgotten: Memoirs of a Teenage Girl Prisoner of the Japanese in China. New South Wales Australia: Jopyce Bradbury, 2000. http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/books/ForgivenForgotten/Book/ch2.htm

Cody, Jeffery W.; Terpak, Frances, eds. Brush & Shutter: Early Photography in China. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2011.

Acquisition information:
Acquired in 2006.
Arrangement:

Arranged in a single series: Series I: Views and scenes of China, 1860-1900.

Physical location:
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Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Beth Ann Guynn
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-10-16 11:17:31 -0700 .

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Preferred citation:

Views and scenes of China, 1860-1900, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2006.R.1.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2006r1

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
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