Uchida Kuichi
Haru-ko, the Empress of Japan

ArtistJapanese, 1844 - 1875
CultureJapanese
Titles
  • Haru-ko, the Empress of Japan
  • [Meiji period, in Sokutai ceremonial court dress]
Date1872
PlaceJapan
MediumAlbumen silver copy print with applied color
DimensionsImage: 8 × 5 7/8 in. (20.3 × 15 cm)
Sheet: 9 5/8 × 7 1/2 in. (24.4 × 19.1 cm)
Mount: 11 × 13 3/4 in. (27.9 × 34.9 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Joan Morgenstern in honor of Anne H. Bushman
Object number2000.432
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

When this photograph was taken, Emperor Meiji was also portrayed in Heian-period courtly dress in a pendant portrait. The ubiquitous images of the empress in European-style dress were not issued until after 1890. Despite her archaic dress in this image, her long hair, simple eyebrows, and unblackened teeth are all representative of the new, modern models of feminine style encouraged (even enforced) during the Meiji period. Uchida, primarily known for his landscape photos, studied Rangaku (Dutch studies, a field comprising Western science) at the Dutch Medical School in Nagasaki and opened studios in Kobe, Osaka, Yokohama, and, in 1870, Tokyo.


Provenance[Gary Edwards Gallery, Washington, DC]; purchased by MFAH, 2000.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

images from Tina Tan
Alice Austin
2018
Artist book of linoleum cuts in colors and letterpress on wove paper; objects made of silver, glass, sea shells and plastic placed in Japanese shibori textile bags; all components housed in a wooden box, edition 2 of 5 deluxe copies, edition of 15
2019.38
Portrait of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre
Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg
c. 1844, printed c. 1860
Albumen silver print copy of a daguerreotype
2022.215
published 1898
Book of photoengraving, albumen prints with applied color and gold leaf
88.399
Japan, Volume X
published 1898
Book of photoengraving, albumen prints with applied color and gold leaf
88.400
Palm Trees
Winslow Homer
c. 1904
Gelatin silver copy print
72.17
Fisherman, Adirondacks
Winslow Homer
c. 1894
Gelatin silver copy print
72.16
A family flees across the border in the Bavarian Forest to the West
Hilmar Pabel
1948-49, printed 1995
Gelatin silver print from copy negative
2013.644
Gay Block, Eve France and Anne Tucker
Gay Block
1997, printed later
Inkjet copy print
2022.36.121
Fame and History
Hendrick Goltzius
after 1586 (probably seventeenth century)
Engraving on laid paper, copy A
71.60.2
S. Marco Museum
Romualdo Alinari
1850–1859
Albumen silver print with applied color
2000.278.50
Untitled
c. 1880
Albumen silver print with applied color
95.130.3
Untitled
c. 1880
Albumen silver print with applied color
95.130.2