“Chineesch meisje” – Chinese girl

Title
“Chineesch meisje” – Chinese girl
Year/Period
around 1900s
Region
Singapore
Material
Dimension
Frame size: 31.5 x 28.1 x 3.5 cm,
Image size: 18.5 x 16.0 cm
Accession No.
2018-00111
Collection of
Credit Line
Gift of Mr and Mrs Lee Kip Lee

This studio portrait shows a Peranakan girl bedecked with jewellery. The headdress she wears is known as a penapek headdress. ‘22. Chinese girl’ is inscribed on the lower edge of the photograph. The photograph is stamped with the studio mark ‘GR Lambert & Co Singapore’.G.R. Lambert and Co was a leading and the most enduring of the European photography studios in Singapore. The studio was established in 1867 by Gustave Richard Lambert, who was originally from Dresden, Germany. Popular among the elites, the firm was often chosen as the official photographers for important state events in Singapore. In 1861 it was appointed as the official photographer of the King of Siam and the Sultan of Johore.