Canton, Kwangtung province, China: an old woman. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

An old woman, in profile to right, resting chin on her crooked right index finger. Her greying hair is gathered in a twist at the back. She wears large curly earrings and a garment of coarse woven material. Here Thomson wanted to show all the hardship and toil the old woman had endured, and her resilience too: "Of the four heads shown in these pictures, the two upper ones are fair types of the aged labourers of China. Darby and Joan have for many years been associated together, and their life has been a uniform scene of hardships and toil. Two generations have now grown up around them, and their sons and grandsons have succeeded them as the bread-winners of the family. The old woman still busies herself in the lighter domestic duties; she is skilful with the needle, and invaluable as a nurse in time of sickness. Her hair has grown thin and white, but she still dresses it with neatness and care"--Thomson, loc. cit.