Zouaves
1855
Medium
Salted paper print, plate 21 from the album "Photographs Taken in the Crimea" (1856)
Dimensions
Image/paper: 16.9 × 16.2 cm (6 11/16 × 6 7/16 in.); Mount: 58.9 × 42.5 cm (23 1/4 × 16 3/4 in.)
Classification
salted paper print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
146126
Art Historical Context
**Zouaves** by Roger Fenton captures a poignant moment from the Crimean War (1853–1856), one of the first conflicts documented through photography. Taken in 1855, this salted paper print—plate 21 from Fenton's seminal album *Photographs Taken the Crimea* (1856)—depicts French Zouave soldiers, elite infantry troops originally recruited from Algeria, known for their vibrant, North African-inspired uniforms of baggy trousers, sashes, and fezzes. Fenton, a pioneering British photographer, traveled to the Crimea at the request of the British government to counter negative press about the war's hard...
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...