Prince Kung
c. 1868
Medium
Collotype, pl. I from the album "Illustrations of China and its People, Volume I" (1873)
Dimensions
Image: 29 × 19.9 cm (11 7/16 × 7 7/8 in.); Album page: 47 × 34.8 cm (18 9/16 × 13 3/4 in.)
Classification
photography
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
236379
Art Historical Context
Behold the striking portrait *Prince Kung* (c. 1868) by pioneering photographer John Thomson, a collotype plate from his seminal album *Illustrations of China and its People, Volume I* (1873). Captured during Thomson's extensive travels in China from 1862 to 1872, this image depicts Yixin, the powerful Prince Kung of the Qing dynasty—a key statesman who navigated China's turbulent relations with the West amid the Opium Wars' aftermath and the Self-Strengthening Movement. Thomson's work revolutionized documentary photography, blending ethnographic insight with artistic precision to portray Chi...
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...