View Opposite Canton
ca. 1869
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 10 15/16 × 10 9/16 in. (27.8 × 26.8 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Robert Rosenkranz Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.494.49
Tags
Art Historical Context
John Thomson's *View Opposite Canton* (ca. 1869) offers a mesmerizing glimpse into 19th-century China through the lens of one of the era's pioneering photographers. This albumen silver print from a glass negative, measuring nearly 11 inches square, captures an urban panorama across from Canton (modern-day Guangzhou), featuring tightly packed buildings, houses, and bustling streets. Displayed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Photographs Department as part of the Gilman, it exemplifies the medium's ability to freeze fleeting moments of everyday life in vivid detail. Thomson, Scottish photograph...
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...