Temple at Naveshera, Kashmir, India (1864): Art, History and Details

Temple at Naveshera, Kashmir, India (1864) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Samuel Bourne (British, 1834–1912).

The work and its context

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

One of the most important British expeditionary photographers, Samuel Bourne was propelled by his great desire to travel to lovely, remote locations and to record images of what he considered picturesque. From 1863 to 1869, he worked widely in India, making three major expeditions to the Himalayas. This exquisite photograph of the decaying Temple of Naveshera was taken on his nine-month, second journey to this stunning, mountainous terrain. He balanced the ordered, constructed architectural forms with glimpses of the majestic natural landscape. Bourne included a few people in the scene to add a sense of scale, but they are incidental to the subject matter and symbolism of the photograph, which stresses the dominance of natural forces.

Object facts

• Title: Temple at Naveshera, Kashmir, India
• Date: 1864
• Creator attribution: Samuel Bourne (British, 1834–1912)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print from wet collodion negative
• Dimensions: Image: 24 x 28.7 cm (9 7/16 x 11 5/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
• Collection: Photography
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1994.186

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.

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.