On the internet I have found three images that appear to be old black and white photos of the master Kuthumi.
1. The photograph that I put above where the master Kuthumi appears from the front is perhaps the oldest photograph and could be the ferrotype that Kuthumi referred to in a letter he wrote to Mr. Sinnett:
« And whence that other to have my portrait?
Never
had but one taken, in my whole life; a poor ferrotype produced in the days of
the "Gaudeamus" [of his university days in Europe]by a travelling
female artist — (some relative, I suppose, of the Munich Beer-Hall beauties
that you have interviewed of late) — and from whose hands I had to rescue it.
The
ferrotype is there, but the image itself has vanished: the nose peeled off and
one of the eyes gone. No other to offer. I dare not promise for I never break
my word. Yet —I may try— some day to get you one. »
(ML 49, p.285-286)
A ferrotype is
a photograph that was made in the past where the image was placed
directly on a sheet of metal, usually iron or steel, which was blackened
by painting, lacquering or enameling so that the image would appear.
And the photograph above may be this ferrotype that the German artist took of master Kuthumi, but the image was edited to improve it because it had worn out over time.
I do not know where this ferrotype is currently located and how the image it contained was obtained.
2. The other two photos of Master Kuthumi are as follows:
I suspect they may have been taken in 1884, when the German painter Hermann Schmiechen painted the most famous portraits of Kuthumi and Morya :
And
what leads me to think that is because in the two photos the master
Kuthumi appears in the same outfit he was wearing when Hermann
Schmiechen painted his portrait.
This is a typical costume from the Kashmir region, in India, where the master Kuthumi is from.
And I also don't know how those photos were taken and where they are now.
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