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The Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah

A work made of albumen print.
Public Domain

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  • A work made of albumen print.

Date:

c. 1858-62

Artist:

Dr. John Murray
Scottish, 1809–1898

About this artwork

Trained as a doctor, John Murray took up photography while in the medical service of the army of the East India Company. He was stationed near the Taj Mahal, in Agra, India, where he became interested in Mughal architecture and began documenting monuments in the area; in 1857 he exhibited 30 of these views in London. Murray employed a large–format camera that accommodated the size of the waxed–paper negative seen here. With less sensitive photographic emulsions, however, exposing for the building could result in an unsightly, blotchy sky. Murray and others solved this by blacking out the negative’ s sky with India ink, resulting in a crisp white in the final print. The architecture of the site depicted here, a mausoleum built between 1622 and 1628, is often regarded as anticipating the Taj Mahal, constructed some 20 years later.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Dr. John Murray

Title

The Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah

Place

Scotland (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1853–1867

Medium

Albumen print

Inscriptions

Inscribed recto, on mount, lower right, below image, in graphite and black ink: "VII-3M [graphite] / VII-3M [in black ink]"; verso unchecked

Dimensions

Image/paper: 36.8 × 45.2 cm (14 1/2 × 17 13/16 in.); Mount: 48.6 × 61.2 cm (19 3/16 × 24 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Robert Hershkowitz and Charles Isaacs

Reference Number

2000.572

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/156715/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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