Architectural View of the Lama Temple Near Pekin, October 1860
1860
Medium
albumen print
Dimensions
image: 28.9 × 25.1 cm (11 3/8 × 9 7/8 in.) mount: 29.9 × 25.1 cm (11 3/4 × 9 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Michael and Jane Wilson
Accession Number
2012.137.1.29
Art Historical Context
In October 1860, Felice Beato, a pioneering British-Italian photographer renowned for his vivid documentation of 19th-century conflicts and Asian landscapes, captured this striking *Architectural View of the Lama Near Pekin*. The depicts the ornate Yonghe Temple (also known as the Lama Temple) in Beijing a key Tibetan Buddhist site blending Chinese and Tibetan architectural styles with intricate pavilions, courtyards, and gilded roofs. Beato's work arrived amid the Second Opium War, when Anglo-French forces occupied Beijing, marking a pivotal moment of Western incursion into China and the infa...
About the Artist
Felice Beato
Felice Beato (c. 1832–1909), an Italian-born photographer who became a British subject through his family's residence on the British protectorate island of Corfu, emerged as one of the pioneering figures in war and travel photography. Born in Venice or Corfu to a Venetian noble family with roots in Corfu, Beato's early life remains somewhat obscure, but he acquired his first photographic lens in P...