Peking, Pechili province, China. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

Three men, two older with beards, one younger with a moustache, sitting in a garden. A building behind them to the left, a rockery to the right. The men are three Chinese Ministers at the Office of Foreign Affairs in the late Qing: (left to right) Shen Guifeng, Dong Xun and Mao Changxi. A native of Jiangsu, Shen Guifeng (1818-1881) was best known for his anti-opium policy and for his contributions to the state-run modernizing movement – the 'yangwu movement'. In this portrait, Thomson intended to show that Chinese officials did not spend their time in idleness and luxury; rather, they led laborious lives and dressed in simple robes. But more importantly, for him these three individuals 'were as fine-looking men as ever our own Cabinet can boast. All of them had an air of quiet, dignified repose'