Gun Battery
1855-1856
Medium
albumen print
Dimensions
image: 22 × 27.5 cm (8 11/16 × 10 13/16 in.) mount: 32.5 × 40.8 cm (12 13/16 × 16 1/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Michael and Jane Wilson
Accession Number
2012.137.4.9
Art Historical Context
James Robertson's *Gun Battery* (1855–1856) captures a pivotal moment from the Crimean War, of the first conflicts documented through photography. As a pioneering British photographer working in the Crimea alongside Felice Beato, Robertson into the heart of the Siege of Sevastopol, the gritty realities of 19th-century warfare. This albumen print likely depicts a British artillery position, showcasing massive cannons poised amid the muddy trenches and fortifications—a stark testament to the industrial-scale destruction of the era, where photography first brought distant battlefields into public...
About the Artist
James Robertson
James Downie Robertson, known professionally as James D. Robertson (1931–2010), was a distinguished Scottish painter whose vibrant depictions of the rugged West Coast landscapes profoundly shaped modern Scottish art. Born in Cowdenbeath, Fife, as one of twin boys, his family relocated to Glasgow at the outset of World War II, where he attended Hillhead High School. Robertson studied at the Glasgow...