Watkins Image of a Cantonese Opera Actor in San Francisco, ca. 1880

Chinese Actor, S. F. [Boudoir Card]

Watkins, Carleton

Notes: A fine, dramatic portrait of a Cantonese opera actor standing in a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. He is surrounded by ornate Chinese-style chairs. In the background, a Buddha shrine is visible, as are stringed instruments hanging on the wall. Scrolls and paintings hang on the wall. The actor, clearly a leading man (xiaosheng) wears an elaborate, ornate costume and the winged cap of a loyal official, the flaps of which could typically be moved with hidden wires for comic or dramatic effect.

Carleton Watkins, a prolific and acclaimed 19th century photographer of California, made a number of views of San Francisco's Chinatown, which was located a couple of blocks from his studio-showroom on Montgomery Street. Watkins is known to have employed a Chinese-American darkroom assistant, Ah Fue, who may have helped give him access to people and locations not normally visited by white photographers. Based on Peter Palmquist's checklist of Watkins' stereoviews—one of which was a cropped version of this photograph—this image likely dates from the late 1870s.

According to the Sacramento Bee (7 March 1879), Long Yow was the leading male Chinese actor of the day in San Francisco, earning $6700 per year performing in Chinatown's two theaters. This image could be him or one of the half-dozen other leading players on the stage at the time.

The photo was taken by Watkins in a Chinese restaurant. A sheet or curtain was hung on the right side of the image, opposite the windows, either to simplify the scene or to reflect light back toward the center of the image. Two other Watkins photographs taken in this room are known: one of two women seated in the same room with the sheet on the right side of the image, titled "Interior, Chinese Restaurant, S. F." (New Boudoir Series, B3764) and a group of four men having tea at a table in front of the musical instruments without the sheet, which reveals a wall of glass (New Boudoir Series B3762).

The albumen silver print measures 8-3/16 by 4-3/4, with the image slightly smaller and the mount somewhat larger. It is captioned in letterpress, "B 3765. Chinese Actor. S. F. / Watkins' New Boudoir Series Yo Semite and Pacific Coast, 427 Montgomery Street, San Francisco."

The Getty has a version of this image captioned in manuscript. Sotheby's sold an image very similar to the Getty's as part of a lot of boudoir views (6 April 2013), with a letterpress caption that included Watkins' street address with the note, "under Palace Hotel, S. F." Both the Getty and Sotheby's version are cropped differently than this view. Here the actor stands in the immediate foreground, leaving more of the wall decoration behind him visible. This image is also shifted slightly to the left.

Edition + Condition: Very minor chipping to the edges of the mount, otherwise a fine, medium contrast image, which is typical of Watkins' boudoir cards. The verso (back) of the mount has a surface tear where a piece of adhesive was removed, not affecting the image.

Publication: San Francisco: Carleton Watkins, (late 1870s, printed perhaps a decade later).

Item No: #307178

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