A Rare Visual Record of Japan’s Transformation– Felice Beato
A rare Cartes-de-Visite album by Felice Beato. C.1863. Leather covered album containing forty-eight carte-de-visite (CdV). Cover: 15 x 12cm. Estimate: £2000 – 2500.
This exceptional album of forty-eight carte-de-visite portraits offers a rare and intimate view into Japan during one of its most turbulent and visually captivating periods.
A pioneer of early photography and one of the first Western photographers to work extensively in Asia, Beato is considered a foundational figure in the development of documentary photography. His work not only shaped how the West viewed the East during the 19th century, but also captured aspects of societies that were, in many ways, on the cusp of irreversible transformation. Beato was among the first war photographers, having documented the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, and the Second Opium War, before turning his lens to the everyday life, landscapes and people of Japan.
Beato arrived in Yokohama in 1863 and lived in Japan for over twenty years. During that time, he opened the country’s first photography studio and created some of the earliest hand-coloured photographs ever seen. His images recorded a nation in transition as the Tokugawa shogunate came to an end and the Meiji Restoration began. This period, known as the Bakumatsu, was marked by internal conflict, foreign intervention and rapid social change. Beato’s portraits captured in this album provide an extraordinary visual insight into Japanese dress, identity and customs at a time when the nation was just beginning to open its borders to the West.
The cartes-de-visite in this album are not just photographic studies but cultural documents. Originally produced as calling cards and exchanged between sitters and collectors, they were also sold to foreign visitors seeking tangible memories of their travels. Beato’s portraits, with their painterly colouring and sensitive composition, stand apart for their clarity and grace. Their survival in album form offers collectors an unusually complete and coherent presentation of his work.
This album is not only rare but exceptionally well preserved, offering an opportunity to acquire a historic collection by one of the most significant photographers of 19th-century Asia.
Consigning to Asian Art at Chiswick Auctions
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Meiji period works of art
Early Japanese photography
Chinese ceramics and scholar’s objects
South Asian sculpture and Himalayan art
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