Field Marshall Lord Raglan, Crimea
Medium
Salted paper print from collodion glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 7 13/16 × 5 7/8 in. (19.9 × 14.9 cm) Mount: 23 5/8 × 17 1/4 in. (60 × 43.8 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Joyce F. Menschel, 2013
Accession Number
2013.1098.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1855, amid the grueling Crimean War (1853–1856), pioneering photographer Roger Fenton captured this striking portrait of Field Marshal Lord Raglan, the British commander leading Allied forces against Russia. Commissioned by London publishers P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. and Agnew & Sons,., Fenton's expedition to the Crimea marked one of the first major efforts to document a modern conflict through photography. Lord Raglan, depicted in formal military attire, embodies the era's stoic leadership, though his tenure ended tragically with his death from dysentery later that year. Printed as a salted ...
About the Artist
Roger Fenton|P. & D. Colnaghi & Co.|Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd. · 1819–1819
Roger Fenton (1819–1869), born into a prosperous Lancashire merchant family as the son of banker and MP John Fenton, initially pursued a scholarly path, earning a first-class BA from the University of London in 1840 before studying law at University College London. He abandoned these pursuits for art, training as a painter under the history painter Charles Lucy in London by 1847—the two became clo...