Four Heads, Types of the Labouring Class

Art Historical Context

In the late 1860s, Scottish photographer John Thomson ventured into China during a transformative era of Western exploration and colonial interest in Asia. *Four Heads, Types of Labouring Class* (c. 1868), plate XI from his seminal album *Illustrations of and its People, Volume* (1873), captures intimate portraits of four working-class Chinese individuals. Each headshot, measuring just 11.3 × 8.8 cm on a grander 47 × 35 cm album page, exemplifies Thomson's ethnographic approach, documenting "types" of everyday people with a keen eye for human dignity amid rapid social change. Printed as a collotype—a precise photomechanical process that faithfully reproduced photographic details in ink— this work highlights early innovations in photography's dissemination. Collotypes allowed Thomson's vivid images to reach wide audiences through bound albums, bridging art and anthropology. His straightforward compositions emphasize facial expressions and attire, offering a window into 19th-century Chinese laboring life, from farmers to artisans, during the Qing Dynasty's twilight. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media department, this piece underscores photography's role in cultural documentation, blending artistic portraiture with historical record-keeping. Visitors will appreciate how Thomson's lens humanized distant lives, fostering empathy across continents.

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...