Musiciens Annamites, Saïgon, Cochinchine
1866
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
23.1 x 27.9 cm (9 1/8 x 11 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.501 (16)
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Musiciens Annamites, Saïgon, Cochinchine** (1866) by Émile Gsell offers a captivating glimpse into mid-19th-century Vietnam during the early years of French colonial rule. Captured in Saigon, then the bustling capital of Cochinchina, the albumen silver print depicts Annamite (Vietnamese) musicians—both men and women—surrounded by traditional instruments and lush plants. Gsell, a pioneering French photographer who arrived in Indochina in 1866 as part of an official expedition, documented everyday life with remarkable clarity, making this one of the earliest photographic records of local custo...
About the Artist
Emile Gsell · 1838–1879
Emile Gsell (1838–1879) was a French photographer who became one of the earliest Western photographers to document Southeast Asia, particularly the ancient temples of Angkor in Cambodia. Born in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines in Alsace, France, Gsell traveled to Indochina in the 1860s, establishing a photographic studio in Saigon (present-day Ho Chi Minh City) that became a base for his documentary expedi...