Cathedral, Escuintla
Eadweard J. Muybridge
American, born England. 1830–1904
1875
An albumen silver print photograph by Eadweard J. Muybridge that records the weathered façade of the Cathedral at Escuintla, made to document and share the architecture and landscape of a distant colonial town.
The view arrests you with the cathedral’s sculpted, timeworn stone façade set against misty, conical volcanoes, framed by tall palms, a lonely stone cross, and tiny human figures that give a sense of scale and silence.
Made before Muybridge’s famous motion studies, this travel photograph shows how 19th‑century albumen prints carried images of remote places to metropolitan audiences, shaping documentary, architectural, and ethnographic photography.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
5 3/8 × 9 3/8" (13.6 × 23.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Transferred from The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Accession
182.1964.28
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
