Peking, Pechili province, China: a Manchu official seated. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

A man seated in an interior. He wears spectacles, a fur hat and muff, and a heavy silk coat. His left arm rests on a table, his feet on a small stool. He seems to be the same Manchu official who is shown in no. 19560i. Here he is sitting on a chair next to a Chinese-style table. On the table is a teacup. This arrangement of small table, teacup and simple backdrop appears repeatedly in Thomson’s portraits of the mandarin class in China. This official’s foreign spectacles are juxtaposed with the furnishings: while sipping his tea, he, like many men of status in China, is looking to the West and to modernization. Behind him, a wall and door ornamented with trellis-work. To the left of the frame stands another figure with similar clothes, only half visible