Los 4021

China
Portraits of high ranking Chinese Imperial officials and views of Peking and surroundings

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Fotografie des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts (Katalog nur online verfügbar)
Auktionsdatum 4.12.2024

Photographer: Georges Auguste Morache (1837-1906). Portraits of high-ranking Chinese Imperial officials and views of Peking and surroundings. 1863-66. 27 albumen prints. Each between circa 16,5 x 21 cm and smaller. Each mounted to board (44 x 34 cm, slightly warped), each signed by the photographer in red ink below the image in lower right on mount; most extensively annotated in German in black ink and each with title and explanation by the photographer in red ink on mount verso, loose in contemporary half-linen card portfolio (some scuff marks, edges slightly rubbed, some traces of use, ties missing/torn).

Photographs by amateur photographer Dr. Georges Auguste Morache are among the earliest known views and portraits of people from Beijing. They are also extremely rare, as Dr. Morache had no commercial intentions; he was motivated primarily by personal interest and certainly also the technical challenges of photography, which was still in its infancy at the time. He compiled his work into various thematic groups, which he later gifted to family members and friends. Among the 13 portrait photos, the images of high-ranking ministers and other dignitaries whose names and rank are mentioned on the verso by Morache are particularly interesting. The portraits show Ouen-Siang(?), the Foreign Minister and Vice-President of the Imperial Council; the Finance Minister and member of the Imperial Council; the Ambassador of Korea; a high-ranking Buddhist monk and several other civilian and military figures. The most well-known image is the portrait of Prince Gong, who was intermittently the most influential imperial official after the Second Opium War.The few surviving photographs are now housed in museums and private collections, with those in the Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection in New York being particularly well-known.
Another album, titled “Vues de Pékin 1865-67,” containing 29 photographs, signed on the title page, can be found at The Toyo Bunko Oriental Library in Tokyo (formerly part of the George Morrison Collection). The ethnologically focused Musée du quai Branly in Paris also owns Morache’s photographs, and there is an additional bound album of approximately 40 photographs in a private British collection. Aside from these four extant portfolios, the collection offered here represents a fifth example. Unlike the photographs in the aforementioned collections, each image in this collection bears Morache’s signature on the front of the mount, although the reason for this is not entirely clear; he may have wished to prevent his work from being confused with that of other photographers in Beijing.
Dr. Morache studied surgery at the naval school in Brest, continued his medical education in Strasbourg, and then trained at the renowned Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris. His good reputation led to his appointment as a medical officer at the French legation in Peking. He traveled to China in 1863 with his wife and mother, who notably maintained a network among various personalities in Beijing and observed cultural and political life closely. Morache's mother (Pauline) recorded her experiences and observations in detail (in German) on the backs of the large mounts that accompany these photographs. This indicates that she likely had a German background. She was acquainted with the Countess of Stolberg-Stolberg, who introduced her to the family of Friedrich Viktor Strauss (1909-1899), later Viktor von Strauss und Torney. He was a well-known Protestant religious historian and translator and became particularly well known for the first translation of the Tao Te King from Chinese into German. One can therefore safely assume that the text on the mounts of the photos are addressed directly to him. – Some surface rubbing/scuffing, some slightly faded, otherwise most prints in good to very good condition.

Provenance: Descendants of Viktor von Strauß und Torney (1809-1899)

Lit.: Édouard de Saint-Ours. The Photography of Dr. Georges Auguste Morache (1837–1908).
A Selection from the Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection.
Exhibition Catalogue, London 2016.