Japanese Family at Chow-Chow
1865
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
13.5 × 18.2 cm (5 5/16 × 7 3/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.583 (66a)
Art Historical Context
In 1865, Scottish photographer John Thomson captured *Japanese Family at Chow-Ch*, an intimate albumen silver print from glass negative, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection. Measuring just 13.5 × 18.2 cm, this small yet evocative image portrays a Japanese family in an everyday setting, likely during Thomson's travels in Asia amid growing Western interest in the East. The albumen process, popular in the mid-19th century, richly toned prints with fine detail from glass negatives, making it ideal for documentary photography. Thomson, renowned for his pioneering ethno...
About the Artist
John Thomson · 1837–1921
John Thomson (1837–1921), a pioneering Scottish photographer, was born on 14 June 1837 in Edinburgh as the eighth of nine children to William Thomson, a tobacco spinner and trader, and Isabella Newlands.) After schooling in the early 1850s, he apprenticed with a local optical and scientific instrument manufacturer, where he mastered the principles of photography, completing his training around 185...