Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852–1860 West Building Ground Floor

Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Quarterdeck of HMS “Impregnable,” 1852–1854, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, William and Sarah Walton Fund, Diana and Mallory Walker Fund, and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation through Robert and Joyce Menschel, 2010 Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Madura: The Vygay River, with Causeway, across to Madura, January–February 1858, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Carolyn Brody Fund and Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation through Robert and Joyce Menschel, 2006 Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Pugahm Myo: Carved Doorway in Courtyard of Shwe Zeegong Pagoda, August 20-24 or October 23, 1855, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Diana and Mallory Walker Fund, 2012 Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Amerapoora: South Ditch of the City Wall, September 1-October 21, 1855, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Edward J. Lenkin Fund, 2012 Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Amerapoora: Ouk Kyoung, September 1-October 21, 1855, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Edward J. Lenkin Fund, 2012 Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Rangoon: View near the Lake, November 1855, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Diana and Mallory Walker Fund, 2012 Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Amerapoora: Wooden Bridge, September 1–October 21, 1855, albumen print, Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012, © The Metropolitan Museum of Art Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Amerapoora: Shwe-doung-dyk Pagoda, September 1-October 21, 1855, albumen print, Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors, and Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2012, © The Metropolitan Museum of Art Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Pugahm Myo: Gauda-palen Pagoda, August 20–24, 1855, albumen print, The British Library, London Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Seeringham: Great Pagoda, Munduppum inside Gateway, January 1858, albumen print, The British Library, London Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Beekinpully: Permaul’s Swing at Mariammah Covil, December 1857–January, 1858, waxed paper negative, The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Amerapoora: Colossal Statue of Gautama Close to the North End of the Wooden Bridge, September 1–October 21, 1855, albumen print, Collection of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Linnaeus Tripe, Beekinpully: Permaul’s Swing at Mariammah Covil, December 1857–January, 1858, albumen print, Collection of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Captain Linnaeus Tripe (1822–1902) occupies a special place in the history of 19th-century photography for the outstanding body of work he produced in India and Burma (now the republic of Myanmar) in the 1850s. Although he learned photography in Great Britain from amateurs who considered it a pastime, he recognized that it could be an effective tool for conveying information about unknown cultures and regions. With few models to follow, Tripe developed a professional practice under the auspices of the large bureaucracy of the British East India Company. Reflecting his military discipline as an officer in the British army, he achieved remarkably consistent results, despite the Indian heat and humidity, which posed constant challenges to photographic chemistry. In addition, Tripe’s schooling as a surveyor, where the choice of viewpoint and careful attention to visual details were essential, gave his photographs their distinctive aesthetic rigor.

This exhibition traces Tripe’s work from his earliest photographs made in England (1852–1854), to ones created on expeditions to the south Indian kingdom of Mysore (1854), to Burma (1855), and again to south India (1857–1858). Many of his photographs were the first to document celebrated archaeological sites and monuments, ancient and contemporary religious and secular buildings — some now destroyed — as well as geological formations and landscape vistas; thus they provided a new kind of visual information. Yet the dynamic vision Tripe brought to these large, technically complex photographs and the lavish attention he paid to their execution indicate that his aims were artistic as well.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Sponsors: This exhibition is made possible by The Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art.

It is also supported by the Trellis Fund.

Additional funding is kindly provided by Edward Lenkin and Roselin Atzwanger.

Other Venues: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 24–May 25, 2015

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, June 23–October 11, 2015



Image: Linnaeus Tripe, Madura: The Vygay River with Causeway, across to Madura, January–February 1858, albumen print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Carolyn Brody Fund and Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation through Robert and Joyce Menschel