Untitled (verso)
Medium
Albumen print, gold-toned
Dimensions
image: 20.2 × 26.7 cm · mounted: 27.8 × 37.9 cm
Classification
Photograph
Department
Photography
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchased with funds donated by Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer
Accession Number
2015.32.b
Tags
About this artwork
Probably taken by one of two British photographic firms based in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), this image was likely shot by a European and was definitely made for a European audience, not for the individuals depicted. It is unlikely the sitters ever saw the finished photograph. Such ethnographic portraits were collected by governments as information, by tourists as souvenirs, and by “armchair travelers” as aids to the imagination. Viewers of the era would have regarded it more as a depiction ...