India. Calcutta. Upper Chitpore Road (A), after photo by Dr. Kurt Boeck (c. 1890–1910): Art, History and Details

India. Calcutta. Upper Chitpore Road (A), after photo by Dr. Kurt Boeck (c. 1890–1910) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Photoglob Co. (Zurich, active c. 1890–1910).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This busy street corner gives us a glimpse into everyday life in turn-of-the-twentieth-century India. Unlike most of the mid-19th century genre photographs of colonial India, which were posed or staged, here people go about their business, unaware that they are being photographed. The color scene was made using a black-and-white negative by Dr. Kurt Boeck, a German actor and mountain climber who became a travel writer and lecturer specializing in Asia.

Object facts

• Title: India. Calcutta. Upper Chitpore Road (A), after photo by Dr. Kurt Boeck
• Date: c. 1890–1910
• Creator attribution: Photoglob Co. (Zurich, active c. 1890–1910)
• Culture: India, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: Photochrom
• Dimensions: Paper: 20.6 x 26.2 cm (8 1/8 x 10 5/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - Misc. 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2019.187

A detail from the museum

Chitpore (now spelled Chitpur) Road is one of the oldest roads in Kolkata (previously Calcutta).

Collection credit

Gift of Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.