Photography Mourning Ceremony for the Dowager Empress Longyu
Photography Mourning Ceremony for the Dowager Empress Longyu
CC BY-SA 4.0
A black-and-white photograph showing a mourning ceremony for the Dowager Empress Longyu (reigned 1908–1912) in front of the Wu Gate (Wumen 午門) in 1913. The Wu Gate or “Meridian Gate” is the first and main entrance to the Forbidden City (Gugong 故宫 or Zijincheng 紫禁城). The space between the Wu Gate and the next passage is referred to as the “fifth courtyard” in the handwritten inventory of Skušek’s album.
The photograph is the 420th of 449 photographs of Beijing and its surroundings in the album of Ivan Skušek Jr., purchased during his stay in Beijing (1914–1920). In the handwritten inventory of the album, the photograph is referred to as Trauerfeier für Kaiserin Yung-Lu: 80.000 Menschen im 5. Hofe (Verb. Stadt). (DZ, MV)
Place of manufacture: Beijing
Manufacturing technique: black-and-white photograph
Dimensions: length: 13.5 cm, width: 8.5 cm
No. of parts: 1
Current owner: Slovene Ethnographic Museum
Date of the last acquisition: 1963
Previous owners and periods of ownership: Ivan Skušek, Jr. and Tsuneko Kondō Kawase - Marija Skušek, National Museum of Slovenia, Slovene Ethnographic Museum
Object condition, handling and damage: bluish discolouration of black colour
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