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Thomas Child (photographer)

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Thomas Child, "Great Wall with Gate, Badaling." 1870s, Albumen Silver print. Source: Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

Thomas Child (1841-1898) was a British photographer and engineer known as a pioneering photographer of China.[1] Child produced a large body of photographs during his time living in Beijing in the 1870s and 1880s – a time when virtually no other photographers operated in the city.[2] During the two decades he spent in China, Child compiled the earliest comprehensive photographic catalog of the customs, architecture, and people of late Qing dynasty Beijing.[3] A keen photographer of architecture, several of Child's images are both the earliest[4] and the only surviving photographic records of their architectural subjects, including some of his images of the Old Summer Palace.[5]

Life and Work

Thomas Child, "Jade Belt Bridge." 1870s, Albumen Silver print. Source: Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

Thomas Child was born in Shropshire, England in 1841 to John and Elizabeth Child.[6] A gas engineer by training, he also became enamored with the new art of photography, which he began to practice in England. In 1870, Child was hired by Sir Robert Hart to join the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and left England in June of that year for Beijing, where he would live until 1889.[7] At the time of his arrival in Beijing, there were only around 100 foreigners living there, and the city was rarely photographed.[2] Child immediately set about learning the Chinese language – stating in a letter from November 1870 that he was spending three hours a day with a tutor – and would later become reasonably fluent.[1] Although his initial employment contract was only for five years, Child became so enamored with China's scenery and culture that he sought to establish himself there more permanently.[8]

Thomas Child, "Peking Street Shops." 1870s, Albumen Silver print. Source: Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

During his first year in China, Child had been too occupied with his engineering work, as well as his studies of the Chinese language, to unpack his camera, but by March of 1871 he had begun to photograph his new environs.[1] As there was no commercial studio in Beijing at the time, Child saw demand develop quickly for his photographs, and began devoting what little time he had available to photographing the architecture and people of Beijing and the surrounding areas. By 1875, he had begun to treat photography as a second profession, and entered the most productive period of his artistic career from 1875-1878, from which the majority of his negatives date.[4]

Child's renown as a photographer would grow significantly in the coming years. In the late 1870s, he became a contributing photographer for The Far East, a periodical published in Japan and Shanghai that featured images of both regions from the greatest photographers working there at the time.[4] His images were published in the July 1877, August 1877, December 1877, and January 1878 issues of the quarterly, and an advertisement he took out in the April 1878 issue offered nearly 200 individual "Views of Beijing and its Vicinity" for 50 cents each.[1] Child had perhaps his greatest photographic success in France, after the French Roman Catholic Bishop of Beijing, Alphonse Favier, made wide use of Child’s work – both as photoengravings and as woodblock engravings – in his 1897 book Peking, Histoire et Description.[4] Although most of his negatives were created during the 1870s, he continued to make and sell his prints throughout the 1880s.[2]

Thomas Child, "Bride and Groom." 1870s, Albumen Silver print. Source: Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

Child returned to England with his family – with the exception of his eldest son Alfred, also employed with the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, who stayed behind in Beijing as his father's successor – in 1889, and formally retired from the Customs service in the following year.[1] He purchased a home in Chelsfield, Kent, and, in a nod to his time in China, named it "Chang-an-Tang," loosely translated as "Everlasting Tranquility Studios." Thomas Child died near his home on May 27th, 1898, after falling from a horse-drawn carriage and fracturing his skull.

Photographs of China and Chinese Architecture

Thomas Child's photographs have been called "masterpieces creating subtle evocations of Beijing and its people while exploring and documenting Beijing as one of the earliest Western residents."[9] Child photographed landmarks of Chinese architecture such as the Old Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, the Peking Observatory, the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Azure Clouds, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, and more.[1][10][11] He also captured street scenes that show the bustling commerce of late Qing Dynasty Beijing.[8] Although primarily known for his architectural photography, Child was also an accomplished portrait photographer, and created images of peddlers, beggars, religious leaders, ambassadors, and a magnificent wedding portrait of a young aristocratic bride and groom named Zeng Ji Fen and Nie Ji Gui.[12]

Thomas Child. "Princes Porch, Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan), Beijing." 1870s, Albumen Silver print. Source: Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

Child's most significant contribution to both 19th century photography and the study of Chinese architecture may well be his photographs of Yuanmingyuan – known in English as the Old Summer Palace – one of the most potent symbols of China's past.[9] Child arrived in China well after the Palace's initial destruction by British Troops in 1860, but before time and further depredations in 1900 altered the site irrevocably.[9] According to a letter dated October 1872, Child and a fellow photographer who had come from Shanghai named D.K. Griffith visited the Old Summer Palace, where they "took some excellent views of the place."[1] The ruins were off-limits to visitors, but, as a resident who spoke the language, Child was one of the few photographers able to gain access to the site; his images are among the earliest and most important photographic evidence of the site.[9] Of particular importance among Child’s photographs of the Old Summer Palace are his images of the Prince’s Porch, the only surviving photographic record of this architectural masterpiece,[9] as well as his images of Xiyang Lou and the Fountain Gate, which would be further destroyed in the Boxer Rebellion.[13]

Surviving Thomas Child Photographs and Desiderata

The Stephan Loewentheil China Photography Collection contains the most significant archive of Child's life work, including the largest grouping of his photographs of Beijing, Child's personal diaries, and the only surviving set of his original glass plate negatives.[14][15] Child's diaries – acquired at auction at 2018[16] – "provide fascinating insight" into his journey to China, and describe "local inhabitants, cultural and religious practices, buildings and architecture but also ... detailed descriptions of photographs."[17] Child's only surviving original glass plate negatives were acquired by Stephan Loewentheil at auction at Sotheby's in London.[18][19][20]

Thomas Child's original albumen print photographs are scarce, and rarely appear in the market. A group of 31 of Child's original albumen prints, from the collection of scholar Colin Osman, were auctioned at Sotheby's in 2006 – one of the first notable contemporary auction results for Child.[21] Child's albumen prints have also been discovered in albums alongside the work of other photographers of the region such as Felice Beato[22] and William Saunders.[23] Thomas Child's photographs are held in the permanent collections of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY; the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.; and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA.[12]

Legacy

Thomas Child, "Mongolian Lama." 1870s, Albumen Silver print. Source: Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

In 2015, the first ever solo exhibition of Thomas Child's work was held at the China Exchange in London, as part of Asia Art Week.[8] The exhibition, Qing Dynasty Peking: Thomas Child’s Photographs, featured more than 40 of Child's photographs from the collection of Stephan Loewentheil – holder of the largest and most important group of Child's photographs – many of which had never been publicly displayed.[12] In October 2016, the exhibition traveled internationally to New York, where it was presented at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College.[11] The exhibition was praised by news outlets such as The New York Times,[12] BBC,[10] and The Atlantic.[3]

In 2020, a group of Child's photographs, also from the Stephan Loewentheil China Photography Collection were presented at the Carl A. Kroch Rare Manuscript Collection of the Cornell University Library in the exhibition Lai Fong and Thomas Child: Photographs of Late Qing Dynasty Chinese Street Life, "the first exhibition devoted to 19th-century photographs of street life in Chinese cities."[24]

Thomas Child's body of photographic work has had long-lasting impacts on the study of photography in China and of Chinese architecture, and has been credited with popularizing a type of photography that persisted throughout the Beijing region, wherein photographs of monuments were preferred over the street scenes common in Shanghai or Hong Kong.[4] Unlike other foreign photographers who passed through Beijing – including Felice Beato and John Thomson[2] – Child was a resident, and his intimate understanding of the city and its people comes across in his work.[25] Child's photographs were appreciated by both international and Chinese clientele during his lifetime, and his images were circulated around the world. Curator Stacey Lambrow has stated that "Thomas Child is under-recognized. What he did was remarkable, creating the first, or the most comprehensive, photographic portrayal of 19th-century Peking.”[8]

Chinese language sources

  • 洛文希尔中国摄影收藏
  • 清华大学艺术博物馆、洛文希尔收藏编.世相与映像——洛文希尔摄影收藏中的19世纪中国[C].北京：清华大学出版社，2018.
  • [英]泰瑞·贝内特.中国摄影史：西方摄影师1861-1879[M].徐婷婷译.北京：中国摄影出版社，2013.

See Also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Bennett, Terry. History of Photography in China, Western Photographers 1861-1879. London: Bernard Quaritch Lt.
  2. ^ a b c d Pezzati, Alessandro (2017). "Early Photographs of China". Expedition Magazine. 59 (3). Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  3. ^ a b Epstein, Emily Ann (September 22, 2016). "Before Beijing: A Rare View of China's Last Dynasty". The Atlantic. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e Thiriez, Regine. Barbarian Lens, Western Photographers of the Qianlong Emperor's European Palaces. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138002234.
  5. ^ Yuan, Feng; Mingzhi, Wang, eds. (2018). Vision and Reflection: Photographs of China in the 19th Century from the Loewentheil Collection. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-7-302-51668-2.
  6. ^ Hannavy, John (2013). Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Routledge. p. 815. ISBN 978-1135873264. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  7. ^ Cody, Jeffery W.; Terpak, Frances, eds. (2011). Through a Foreign Glass: The Art and Science of Photography in Late Qing China. Los Angeles, California: Getty Research Institute. ISBN 978-1-60606-054-4. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  8. ^ a b c d Voon, Claire. "A British Photographer in 19th-Century Peking". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  9. ^ a b c d e Loewentheil Collection (2019). Masterpieces of Early Photography of China. p. 100.
  10. ^ a b "Rare early photographs of Peking". BBC. November 2, 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  11. ^ a b Shiue, Andrew. "A British Photographer's Rare Photos of 19th Century Peking". Beyond Chinatown. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  12. ^ a b c d Kahn, Eve M. (September 22, 2016). "Call Him an Early Adopter: Thomas Child, a 19th-Century Photographer in China". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  13. ^ Fogliazza, Edoardo Donatti. "19th Century China Revealed in this Stunning Series of Photographs". That's Shanghai. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  14. ^ "Selected Highlights". Loewentheil China Photography Collection. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  15. ^ Pritchard, Michael. "Auction: Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History / London: 13 November". British Photo History. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  16. ^ McKay, Ian (December 3, 2018). "London and the world in focus at auction including an 18th century map of the capital". Antiques Trade Gazette. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  17. ^ "Thomas Childs - Engineer & Amateur Photographer: Manuscript, Journal". The Saleroom. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  18. ^ McKay, Ian (26 October 2020). "BOOKS AND WORKS ON PAPER: London and the world in focus at auction including an 18th century map of the capital | Antiques Trade Gazette". Antiques Trade Gazette. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  19. ^ "Child, Thomas: EIGHT GLASS PLATE NEGATIVES AND ONE GLASS PLATE POSITIVE OF PEOPLE AND VIEWS IN BEIJING. [CHINA, C.1876-C.1887]". Sotheby's. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  20. ^ "About the Collection". Loewentheil China Photography Collection. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  21. ^ "Lot 130: THOMAS CHILD, ACTIVE 1871-1889". invaluable.com. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  22. ^ "Thomas Child and Felice Beato Group of 14 picturesque prints". Swann Galleries. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  23. ^ "Photographs--Child, Thomas, W. Saunders, H.C. Cammidge, and others". Sotheby's. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  24. ^ "First Exhibition of Nineteenth-Century Chinese Photographer Lai Fong Opens in Ithaca". Fine Books & Collections.
  25. ^ Teicher, Jordan G. "The Rare Foreigner Who Could Capture the Essence of Ancient Peking". Slate. Retrieved 15 October 2020.

Categories

Category:1841 births Category:1898 deaths Category:Photographers from Shropshire Category:19th-century English photographers Category:English expatriates in China

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