St. Pauls Cathedral, Macao
ca. 1869
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 10 9/16 × 8 3/8 in. (26.8 × 21.2 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Robert Rosenkranz Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.494.74
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the sun-drenched streets of 19th-century Macao John Thomson's captivating *St. Paul's Cathedral, Macao* (ca. 1869), an albumen silver print from glass negative. This 10 9/16 × 8 3/8 in. photograph, now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection, frames the iconic Baroque facade of St. Paul's Cathedral—its grand staircase sweeping upward amid ornate carvings and sturdy columns. Though the church had been reduced to these dramatic ruins by a fire in 1835, Thomson's lens immortalizes its enduring majesty as a symbol of Portuguese colonial influence in this bustling East-West ...
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...