Top of the Wall From Anting Gate, Pekin, Taken Possession by English and French Troops, October 1860
1860
Medium
albumen print
Dimensions
image: 23.5 × 29 cm (9 1/4 × 11 7/16 in.) mount: 24.8 × 31.1 cm (9 3/4 × 12 1/4 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Michael and Jane Wilson
Accession Number
2012.137.1.11
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
This striking albumen print by Feliceato captures a pivotal moment the Anting Gate wall in Peking (modern-day Beijing) in October 1860. Beato, a pioneering Italian-born photographer renowned for his war documentation, records the triumphant arrival of English and French troops during the Second Opium War The image, measuring 23.5 × 29 cm, vividly portrays soldiers amid the ancient fortifications, symbolizing Western imperial expansion into China. Historically, this scene follows the allied forces' capture of the city after sacking and burning the Old Summer Palace, forcing the Qing Dynasty to...
About the Artist
Felice Beato
Felice Beato (c. 1832–1909), an Italian-born photographer who became a British subject through his family's residence on the British protectorate island of Corfu, emerged as one of the pioneering figures in war and travel photography. Born in Venice or Corfu to a Venetian noble family with roots in Corfu, Beato's early life remains somewhat obscure, but he acquired his first photographic lens in P...