A Photographic Album of Chinese Vistas: On the Question of Attribution

The Russian State Library (RSL) holds a photographic album of 87 Chinese view images, dated 1876 and erroneously attributed to the St. Petersburg photographer N.A. Ermolin. The present article publishes the results of the research which showed that in reality this album was probably collected by the Russian traveller, writer, doctor and amateur artist P.Ya. Pyasetsky (1843—1920) during the scientific and trade expedition of 1874—1875 to China, organized by the Russian government for commercial, reconnaissance and scientific purposes. P.Ya. Pyasetsky, attached to the mission as a scientist and medic, during the journey acquired, by his own admission, a number of pictures from the British photographer W. Saunders, who had settled in Shanghai after the Opium Wars of the mid-century. Upon P.Ya. Pyasetsky’s return home, N.A. Ermolin reshot (with his permission) the photographs purchased in China and began to distribute copies on the market. A collection of such copies is probably in the Russian State Library.

The article shows that the authorship of the original photographs from the album actually belongs not only to W. Saunders, but also to many other Western photographers from Great Britain, America and Australia. It is established how they got to P.Ya. Pyasetsky; why he needed to compile such an album, given that the expedition had a staff photographer; how P.Ya. Pyasetsky, being an artist and organizer of art and ethnographic exhibitions, used the photographs he bought.

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