Lord Hardinge's Monument, Calcutta
1850s
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Image: 18.4 x 24.2 cm (7 1/4 x 9 1/2 in.) Mount: 21.2 x 27.6 cm (8 3/8 x 10 7/8 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 (1)
Tags
About this artwork
This albumen silver print documents Lord Hardinge's Monument in Calcutta (now Kolkata), photographed by Captain R. B. Hill in the 1850s. The image measures approximately seven and one-quarter by nine and one-half inches and captures the colonial monument within the urban landscape of mid-nineteenth-century India. The photograph demonstrates the technical capabilities of early albumen printing, which produced sharp detail and rich tonal range that made it the dominant photographic process from th...
Art Historical Context
In the heart of mid-19th-century Calcuttanow Kolkata), Captain R. B. Hill's albumen silver print captures *Lord Hardinge's Monument a grand colonial tribute to Henry Hardinge, Governor-General of India from 1844 to 1848. Photographed in the 1850s amid British rule's peak, this 18.4 x 24.2 cm image frames the towering obelisk amid the bustling urban landscape, complete with figures of men and horses that evoke the era's imperial energy. Hill, a British officer turned photographer, meticulously documented Calcutta's monuments, institutions, and streets, creating visual archives for officials, s...
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...