{
"data": {
"id": 148703,
"accession_number": "1976.156",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Paranirvana of Buddha, Gal Vihara, Polonnaruva, Ceylon, 1870\u201371. Joseph Lawton (British, d. 1874). Albumen print; image: 21.4 x 28.2 cm (8 7/16 x 11 1/8 in.); matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Louise S. Richards, 1976.156",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Paranirvana of Buddha, Gal Vihara, Polonnaruva, Ceylon",
"creation_date": "1870\u201371",
"creation_date_earliest": 1870,
"creation_date_latest": 1871,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"England, 19th century"
],
"technique": "albumen print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - British 19th Century",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 21.4 x 28.2 cm (8 7/16 x 11 1/8 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.214,
"height_inch": 8,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.4375,
"width": 0.282,
"width_inch": 11,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.125
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.356,
"height_inch": 14,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.457,
"width_inch": 18,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on recto of mount: \"Reclining Buddha at the Gal Vihara Polonnaruva\"; in pencil on verso: \"#15\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 302374,
"title": "Year in Review, 1976",
"description": "Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).",
"opening_date": "1977-02-01T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 449919,
"title": "Text and Image in Southern Asia",
"description": "Text and Image in Southern Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-March 5, 2023).",
"opening_date": "2022-08-26T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Selection of Photography from the CMA, 1979. Beck Center, Lakewood, OH (1979).",
"opening_date": "1979-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 245). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 31, 2013\u2013June 30, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2013-12-31T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Louise S. Richards, Oberlin, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131976",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1976\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "During the British colonial period in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), a 12th-century monastic establishment with a colossal stone sculpture of the reclining Buddha had fallen into ruins. The photographer\u2019s intentional inclusion of a Sri Lankan man, leaning against a pillar at the front of the composition, and a colonial Englishman, clambering over Buddha\u2019s body, underscores how differently they interact with the site. The Sri Lankan visitor views the ruins with devotional reverence; the Englishman treats it as a place of adventurous entertainment.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79929093"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1976.156-the-paranirvana-of-b"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 221",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1976.156",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1976.156/1976.156_web.jpg",
"width": "1207",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "922220",
"filename": "1976.156_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1976.156/1976.156_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2516",
"filesize": "6385717",
"filename": "1976.156_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1976.156/1976.156_full.tif",
"width": "4176",
"height": "3090",
"filesize": "38745856",
"filename": "1976.156_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Louise S. Richards",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 148703,
"creators": [
{
"id": 559,
"description": "Joseph Lawton (British, d. 1874)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Joseph Lawton British, d. 1874 In the 1860s Joseph Lawton immigrated to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), opening a studio at Kandy in 1866. His most important known work is a series of views of ancient ruins in Ceylon, commissioned in 1870-71, that accompanied a survey by the Committee of Ancient Architecture. Lawton's death in 1874 was attributed to health problems contracted during this work. His widow continued to operate the firm of J. Lawton and Co., listed as photographers to the Duke of Edinburgh, until it closed in 1881. T.W.F.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"death_year": "1874",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1976-12-09T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1870,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1870\u201371",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:38:11.201000"
}
}