Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • Collection
  • Collection Research
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

RISDM 77-024.tif
  • RISDM 77-024.tif

Linnaeus Tripe

Tanjore, Great Pagoda, Great Bull as Viewed on Passing through the Last Gopurum

Description

Maker

Linnaeus Tripe (English, 1822-1902)

Title

Tanjore, Great Pagoda, Great Bull as Viewed on Passing through the Last Gopurum
plate 10, 1858, from the album Photographic Views in Tanjore and Trivady

Year

1860

Medium

  • Albumen print from waxed paper negative

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Albumen print from waxed paper negative

Materials

albumen, waxed paper

Dimensions

Image: 29 x 36.7 cm (11 7/16 x 14 7/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Tripe's monogram included in blind stamp below photo, LC.Blind stamp below photo at center, indicating that Tripe was a photographer to Government; probably indicating number in series (of at least 23) printed outside photo, URC:10

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

77.024

Type

  • Photographs

Projects & Publications

Publications

Pub_ID 1805 Selected Works v_01.jpg
  • Books

Selected Works

Read Online ›

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Early Exposures
19th-Century Photography from the Collection
Mar 13, 2015 – Jul 19, 2015

Label copy

The official photographer to the Madras government, Linnaeus Tripe documented much of south India. This photograph shows Nandi, sacred animal of the Hindu god Shiva, at the entrance to the Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur. Because of the bull’s affiliation with fertility, it has been visited and anointed by pilgrims for hundreds of years, and Tripe’s record emphasizes the smooth surface of the stone.

Tripe’s interest in photography’s descriptive and expressive possibilities is evident in this composition, which carefully considers the sightline while capturing the pattern of rich darks and lights made by the structure, the trees, and the shadows.

The photographic boom at the end of the 19th century reached the masses chiefly by way of portraiture. Case photography-unique photographs whose fragile surfaces were enclosed in velvet, metal, and glass within leather, rubber, or plastic cases-was the first type of portraiture most families owned.

Technological competition, including the drive to make photography more affordable to both makers and buyers, led to the invention of the succession of processes represented here.

Please note that dates refer to major use of the processes in the 19th century. Many of these processes were used by photographers well into the 20th century and are still employed today.

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Linnaeus Tripe (English, 1822-1902)
Tanjore, Great Pagoda, Great Bull as Viewed on Passing through the Last Gopurum; plate 10, 1858, from the album Photographic Views in Tanjore and Trivady, 1860
Albumen print from waxed paper negative
Image: 29 x 36.7 cm (11 7/16 x 14 7/16 inches)
Mary B. Jackson Fund 77.024

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use