1461
sian accountant, Hermann Andersen, which allowed him
to concentrate on his profession and leave the business
operations to his associate. He travelled to Shanghai
for a month in April 1876, returning to Yokohama with
a large collection of Chinese genre images. Stillfried’s
products of the mid-1870s, most notably the albums
generically entitled Views and Costumes of Japan were
beautifully presented objects containing an equal num-
ber of hand-tinted studio ‘types’ and untinted ‘views’
(State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia). Un-
der his direction, the art of hand-tinting reached new
standards rarely approached by subsequent studios, as
he established select colours for each print chosen to
highlight particular items of ethnographic interest. At
its height, Stillfried claimed his studio employed thirty-
eight full time Japanese workers, testifying to the fi rm’s
astounding popularity.
However, several business setbacks soon curtailed
Stillfried’s high standard Japanese work. On 14 Janu-
ary 1877, fi re destroyed his studio and whilst most of
his negatives were saved, at least some were probably
destroyed. A week later Stillfried purchased Beato’s
entire stock, negatives and studio on the Yokohama wa-
terfront, before departing on 6 June 1877 for a one-year
international tour. He exhibited to considerable press
attention at the annual salon of the Photographic Soci-
ety of Great Britain in November 1877, before visiting
several European cities, including Amsterdam, Berlin,
Vienna, and Paris. In June 1878, he fi nally returned to
Yokohama and promptly sold his share in Stillfried &
Andersen to his business partner. In an extraordinary
clause to the contract of dissolution, Stillfried agreed
not to establish any future studio in Japan for a ten-year
period. Andersen, however, continued to market albums
under the Stillfried & Andersen banner containing an
assortment of Beato and Stillfried reprints, as well as
his own studio products, until 1883.
After a six-month Japanese government position
teaching photography at the Department of State Print-
ing, Stillfried opened a studio at his Tokyo residence
in May 1879, but was forced out of business after An-
dersen issued a successful legal challenge for breach
of contract. In response to the court decision, Stillfried
invited his brother Franz to Yokohama, who shortly
after his arrival on 25 October 1879 established the
photographic studio of Baron Stillfried’s Studio, No.
- On 6 December 1879, Stillfried sold his remaining
stock and photographic materials to Franz, prompting
an acrimonious series of lawsuits between Andersen
and the Stillfried brothers. Although Stillfried assisted
his brother Franz in the studio’s operations, his position
was untenable and he soon left for continental Asia in
search of new opportunities.
From September to December 1880, Stillfried oper-
ated a portrait studio in Vladivostock and produced a
portfolio of Siberian studies, reputedly soon afterwards
destroyed by fi re. He returned to Yokohama for several
months, before departing permanently on 4 May 1881,
possibly once again for Siberia. He eventually arrived
in Hong Kong on 15 October 1881, where he once
again opened a portrait studio and gained a lucrative
commission from the Governor-General, Sir John Pope-
Hennessy, to document the decorations installed around
the colony in preparation for the royal visit of Princes’
Albert Victor and George of Wales. On 28 February
1882, Stillfried embarked for Siam (now Thailand) and
remained thirteen months under the auspices of King
Chulalongkorn, employed on several photographic
commissions and the restoration of the royal oil paint-
ing collection until his permanent departure for Europe
in April 1883.
Although at fi rst little known in Vienna, Stillfried
quickly established his reputation with an exhibition
in February 1884 at the Österreichische Museum für
Kunst und Industrie of around four hundred photo-
graphs, paintings, and sketches of Japan, China, and
Siam. Perhaps due to Emperor Franz Joseph’s personal
attendance, Stillfried received exclusive permission the
following year to visit twelve Habsburg estates, resulting
in an important series of interior room photographs andVON STILLFRIED-RATENICZ, BARON RAIMUND
von Stillfried und Ratenitz, Baron Raimund. Actor in Samurai
Armor.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection,
Museum Purchase, 2005 [2005.100.505 (2b)] Image © The
Metropolitan Museum of Art.