Description

A full-length studio portrait of a well-dressed Bombay merchant, photographed by the early Indian photographer Hurrichund Chintamon. The sitter wears a long dark coat over light trousers and a distinctive wrapped turban, combining Indian dress with contemporary colonial-era fashions. He is posed beside an ornate Victorian chair against a painted studio backdrop, reflecting the formal conventions of nineteenth-century commercial portrait photography. The reverse bears Chintamon’s circular studio stamp, linking the photograph to one of Bombay’s earliest Indian-owned photographic studios.

Condition

Albumen print mounted on original carte de visite card. Light overall toning with minor edge and corner wear, consistent with age. The image remains well preserved with strong contrast and good detail. The reverse bears the photographer’s ink stamp along with scattered foxing and minor age-related staining.

References

Gernsheim, Helmut, and Alison Gernsheim. The History of Photography. London: Thames & Hudson, 1969.

Pinney, Christopher. Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Thomas, Julia. India through the Lens: Photography 1840–1911. London: Routledge, 2017.

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