Sir Harry Jones (1791–1866), General; Chief Engineer Sebastopol, Taken on the spot, Crimea
1855
Medium
Thinly albumenized print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 19.8 × 15 cm (7 13/16 × 5 15/16 in.); Mount: 28 × 22.4 cm (11 1/16 × 8 7/8 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
126351
Art Historical Context
In 1855, amid the grueling Siege of Sevast during the Crimean War (1853–1856), pioneering photographer Roger Fenton captured this portrait of Sir Harry Jones a seasoned British general and chief engineer Titled *Sir Harry Jones (179–1866), General; Chief Engineer Sebastopol, on the spot, Crimea*, the image was made directly in the war zone, underscoring Fenton's bold mission as the first official war photographer. Hired by the British government and the press, Fenton hauled a mobile darkroom and cumbersome equipment across the rugged Crimean Peninsula to document the conflict, bringing its har...
About the Artist
Roger Fenton · 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...