Pagoda on the Execution Ground, Foochow
ca. 1869
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 13 3/8 × 9 13/16 in. (33.9 × 24.9 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Robert Rosenkranz Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.494.100
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 1860s, Scottish photographer John Thomson ventured into the heart of Qing Dynasty China, capturing its landscapes and architecture with a pioneering eye. *Pagoda on the Execution Ground,chow* (ca. 1869) depicts a striking Buddhist pagoda rising serenely amid the grim expanse of Fuzhou's (formerly Foochow) execution ground treaty port city opened to Westerners after the Opium Wars This albumen silver print from a glass negative freezes a poignant cultural juxtaposition: the elegant, multi-tiered tower symbolizing spiritual aspiration against a site of public punishment, offering vis...
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...