Temple in North Street, Canton
Felice Beato
Italian, 1825–1903
April 1860
An 1860 albumen silver photograph by Felice Beato that documents the carved entrance of a Canton temple, made to record and present Chinese architecture and everyday life to nineteenth‑century Western viewers.
Your eye is led along the ornate cornice and dragon finials to the cool shadow of the portico, where casually posed men give the richly detailed façade a quiet, lived‑in human scale.
As an early photographic record from China, it shows how photography became a key tool for architectural and ethnographic documentation and for shaping Western perceptions during the era of imperial encounter.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
11 3/4 × 9 1/2" (29.9 × 24.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Jon Hendricks
Accession
46.1986
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
