[Siamese Woman, Holiday Costume]
1865
![[Siamese Woman, Holiday Costume] by John Thomson](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/siamese-woman-holiday-costume-728150.webp)
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
23 × 15.9 cm (9 1/16 × 6 1/4 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 (39b)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1865, Scottish photographer John Thomson captured *Siamese Woman, Holiday*, a striking albumen silver print that offers a window into mid-19th-century Southeast. Thomson, renowned for his pioneering travel photography across China and Indochina, ventured into Siam (modern-day Thailand) during this period, documenting local customs and peoples with an ethnographic eye. This intimate portrait likely depicts a woman in traditional festive attire, highlighting the rich cultural tapestry of Siamese society amid growing Western exploration and colonial influences. The medium—en silver print from...
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...