1460
VON STILLFRIED-RATENICZ, BARON
RAIMUND (1839–1911)
Austrian photographer, painter, soldier, diplomat,
and restorer.
An adventurous aristocrat, Stillfried was one of the most
important travel photographers of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. He was born at Komotau in Bohemia, Austria
(now Chumotov, Czech Republic) on 6 August 1839,
second of three sons of Baron August von Stillfried-
Ratenicz, a decorated career soldier, and Countess
Anna, née Clam-Martinicz. After spending most of his
early childhood in the Austrian Military Frontier district
(now Croatia), he began a formal education in 1851 at
the prestigious Marine-Akademie in Trieste. During his
fi ve-year residence in the port, Stillfried received paint-
ing lessons from the accomplished Orientalist Bernhard
Fiedler (1816–1904), who recognised his talent and
attempted without success to convince his father to sup-
port the boy’s artistic pursuits. After gaining a cadetship
to the army’s second Engineering Battalion, he moved to
Linz in 1856 and attended the drawing classes of Joseph
Maria Kaiser (1824–1893). Although rapidly promoted
through the army ranks, he soon abandoned his military
career “in order to satisfy his thirst for adventure and
travel” [um seinen Durst nach Abenteuern und Reisen
zu befriedigen] (A. Th.).
In January 1863, against his father’s wishes, he vol-
untarily resigned from the Imperial army and travelled
as a shipsboy to Callao, Peru. Financing his wander-
lust through several odd trades, he eventually reached
Nagasaki, probably in late 1863, where he worked for
the Dutch silk fi rm Textor & Company, acquired some
Japanese language skills, and met the Prussian landscape
painter Eduard Hildebrandt (1818–1869). Although
Stillfried later claimed to be self-taught, Fiedler, Hildeb-
randt, and to a lesser degree Kaiser, all built successful
careers on the depiction of distant lands for the European
market and their example perhaps inspired the young
traveller towards a similar artistic vocation.
In mid-1865, Stillfried left Japan to join the volunteer
forces of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. A deco-
rated offi cer, he remained in Mexico after the French
withdrawal, serving in the beleaguered forces until the
execution of Emperor Maximilian on 19 June 1867.
After briefl y returning to Austria, he travelled again
to Japan and by July 1868 settled in Yokohama where
he resided until 1881 (although he frequently travelled
overseas). During the fi rst two years, Stillfried worked
for the North German Legation in Tokyo and sent regular
reports on local affairs to the Austro-Hungarian Foreign
Ministry. He also assisted the Austro-Hungarian diplo-
matic mission on their arrival at Yokohama in October
1869 (Wilhelm Burger acting as offi cial photographer),
for which he received the Franz Joseph Order on 15
March 1871. Aware of the booming local photographic
market, Stillfried quit his diplomatic position in 1870
and opened a photographic supply shop in Tokyo. He
obtained lessons in wet-plate photography from the
experienced professional Felice Beato, before fi nally
opening his own studio of Stillfried & Company at No.
61, Yokohama. Announcing the establishment of the
new atelier, The Hiogo News noted on 9 August 1871:
“A new photographer has started in Yokohama, Baron
Stillfried was once a pupil of Mr. Beato and is now try-
ing to undersell him.” (Harold S. Williams Manuscript
Collection, National Library of Australia, Canberra) As
Beato’s active interest in photography waned, Stillfried
came to dominate the local market, catering for the
infl ux of foreign tourists attracted to Japan during the
1870s. His work was widely reproduced in the overseas
illustrated press and exhibited at several world exhibi-
tions, including Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876),
Paris (1878), Melbourne (1880) and Calcutta (1883).
Although best known for his hand-tinted ‘costumes’
of generic Japanese ‘types,’ his fi rst portfolio revealed
a predilection for the landscape that brought a trained
classical aesthetic to the Japanese views of Beato and
Burger. A vastly underrated outdoor photographer, he
further demonstrated his landscape capabilities in the
later Hong Kong (1881–1882), Siam (1882–1883) and
Balkan collections (1889).
Throughout his career, Stillfried’s entrepreneurial
ambition often led to scandal. In January 1872, he
prompted a serious diplomatic affair after attempting
to market an unoffi cial portrait of the Mikado taken
during the emperor’s inaugural public appearance at
Yokosuka arsenal. The following year, he again courted
controversy after transporting a seven-room teahouse to
Vienna for the World Exhibition, accompanied by three
Japanese women hired to serve tea to the prospective
guests. The authorities refused to allow the building’s
reconstruction in the offi cial grounds after reports asso-
ciated the enterprise with Japanese prostitution. Despite
losing a substantial amount in the venture and returning
to Japan near bankruptcy, Stillfried quickly rebuilt his
enterprise, now situated at No. 59, Yokohama, and soon
promoted as the Japan Photographic Association. In
November 1874 Josef Lehnert, a member of the Austrian
expedition sent to Japan to record the Venus transit,
pronounced in his travelogue: “As a photographer Baron
von Stillfried achieves extraordinary things, really his
atelier is the best and most important in the whole of East
Asia.” [Als Photograph leistet Freiherr von Stillfried
Außerordentliches, thatsächlich ist sein Atelier das beste
und bedeutendste in ganz Ostasien.] (Lehnert, Band II,
532) For his assistance photographing the astronomical
event, Stillfried gained the title of court photographer on
25 April 1875 to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In 1875, Stillfried formed a partnership with a Prus-