Lot 93
**Originally Listed At $400**
Felice Beato (Italian-British, 1832-1909). "A Warrior Fully Armoured" albumen silver print with applied color, ca. 1860s. Titled at lower right; Raimund von Stillfried (Austrian, 1839-1911). "Post Runner" albumen silver print from glass negative with applied color, ca. 1870s. These two hand-colored albumen silver prints by 19th-century European photographers working in Japan - "Post Runner" by Raimund von Stillfried (Austrian, 1839-1911) and "A Warrior Fully Armoured" by Felice Beato (Italian-British, 1832-1909) - exemplify the richly staged, painterly vision of Meiji-era portrait photography. Both artists operated studios in Yokohama, where they captured images of Japanese life for export to Western audiences, blending ethnographic intent with theatrical composition and exquisite surface color. Size of print (both the same): 7.5" W x 10" H (19 cm x 25.4 cm); of matte: 16" W x 20" H (40.6 cm x 50.8 cm)
"Post Runner" by Raimund von Stillfried presents a strikingly tattooed courier striding across a painted studio landscape, his body coiled with inked dragons, waves, and mythic beasts. He wears only a white fundoshi and headband, carrying a pole over one shoulder that flutters with a directional placard, suggesting motion and duty. The vibrant application of pigment heightens every curve of muscle and contour of skin, transforming the runner's laboring figure into a living icon, both ordinary and mythologized.
"A Warrior Fully Armoured" by Felice Beato features a seated samurai posed beneath a garden canopy, his richly lacquered armor meticulously colored in crimson, indigo, and gold. He holds a bow across his lap while his sword rests at his side, the towering banner behind him proclaiming martial readiness. Beato's image evokes solemnity and poise, capturing the twilight aura of the warrior class in an era of social transformation. The composition recalls the timeless stillness of painted portraiture, elevated by Beato's use of dramatic lighting and crisp detail.
Felice Beato was among the first Western photographers to work in East Asia, known for his war photography and later his atmospheric studio portraits. His Yokohama studio employed Japanese artisans to apply watercolors to his prints, creating vivid hybrid images tailored for the Western gaze. Raimund von Stillfried, a former Austrian nobleman and military officer, followed a similar path, eventually co-owning a studio with Beato before founding Stillfried & Andersen. His portraits often conveyed ethnographic interest with careful attention to gesture, costume, and ornament.
These two works, theatrical yet reverent, exemplify a moment when photography, painting, and cultural diplomacy converged. Through artful staging and luminous tinting, Stillfried and Beato captured not just likenesses but ideals - of strength, discipline, and identity in a rapidly modernizing Japan.
Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection
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#192967
- Condition: Both mounted in custom mattes. "Post Runner" has been adhered to construction paper with some tears to paper that do not affect image. "Warrior has folds and creasing in upper left corner. Some marks and wrinkling to mattes that do not affect silver prints.
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