[Burmese Pagoda in the Eden Gardens, Calcutta]
1850s
![[Burmese Pagoda in the Eden Gardens, Calcutta] by Captain R. B. Hill](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/burmese-pagoda-in-the-eden-gardens-calcutta-287833.webp)
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Image: 19.2 x 25.2 cm (7 9/16 x 9 15/16 in.) Mount: 21.1 x 28.2 cm (8 5/16 x 11 1/8 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.948.2 (16)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Captain R. B. Hill's *Burmese Pagoda in the Gardens, Calcutta* (1850s) captures a striking piece of transplanted architecture in one of British India's most elegant public spaces. As an albumen silver print—a pioneering photographic process popular in the mid-19th century—this 19.2 x 25.2 cm image showcases the crisp detail and warm tones typical of the medium, where a light-sensitive egg white emulsion coated glass negatives to produce richly textured positives. Hill, likely a British military officer with a keen eye for the exotic, documented colonial landscapes during a time when photograph...
About the Artist
Captain R. B. Hill
Captain R. B. Hill was a British artist whose work appears to have emerged from a tradition of amateur and military draughtsmanship that flourished in Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Precise dates and full biographical details have not been established in the major art historical literature, but the military rank attached to his name situates him within the significant trad...