Photographer: Felice Beato (1832-1909)
Felice Beato was an Italian-British photographer who was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia, and one of the first war photographers. He is noted for his portraiture, depictions of people’s everyday life (genre art) and views and panoramas of Asia and the Mediterranean. His travels brought images of countries, people and events that were unfamiliar and remote back to people in the West. Beato created the first substantial body of photojournalistic work, capturing events such as the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and the Second Opium War. He influenced other photographers to a great extent, particularly in Japan where he taught and worked with other photographers and artists. He sometimes also worked with his brother, Antonio Beato, which for a long time caused confusion as to who created a particular image, as they shared a signature – Felice A. Beato.
Beato met the British photographer James Robertson in Malta in 1850, and accompanied him to Constantinople in 1851. In 1853 they began photographing together and formed a partnership called ‘Robertson & Beato’. They were joined by Beato’s brother Antonio on photographic expeditions to Malta in 1854 or 1856 and to Greece and Jerusalem in 1857. Several of the firm’s photographs produced in the 1850s are signed ‘Robertson, Beato and Co.’ – it is believed the ‘and Co.’ refers to Antonio.
Robertson became Felice Beato’s brother-in-law in 1855. The same year they travelled to Balaklava, Crimea, where they took over reportage of the Crimean War following Roger Fenton’s departure. Beato and Robertson’s approach differed to Fenton’s, in that they showed the destruction of the war, where Fenton had depicted the dignified aspects of war.
In 1858 Beato arrived in Calcutta and began travelling through Northern India to document the aftermath of the India Rebellion of 1857. During this time he produced possibly the first ever photographic images of corpses; it is believed he may have had skeletal remains disinterred and arranged for heightened drama in at least one of his images. Beato was joined in India for a year in 1858 by his brother Antonio, who later travelled to Egypt and set up a photographic studio in Thebes in 1862.
Beato documented the Second Opium War between 1860-1861, after which he returned to England. By 1863 Beato had moved to Yokahoma , Japan, joining Charles Wirgman. In 1864 the two formed ‘Beato & Wirgman, Artists and Photographers’ which they maintained until 1867; it was one of the earliest and most important commercial studios in Japan. Beato's Japanese photographs include portraits, genre works, landscapes, cityscapes, and a series of photographs documenting the scenery and sites along the Tōkaidō Road. During this period, foreign access to (and within) the country was greatly restricted by the Shogunate. Accompanying ambassadorial delegations and taking any other opportunities created by his personal popularity and close relationship with the British military, Beato reached areas of Japan where few westerners had ventured, and in addition to conventionally pleasing subjects sought sensational and macabre subject matter such as heads on display after decapitation. His images are remarkable not only for their quality, but also for their rarity as photographic views of Edo period Japan. Many of the photographs in Beato's albums were hand-coloured, a technique that in his studio successfully applied the refined skills of Japanese water-colourists and woodblock printmakers to European photography.
After ending his partnership with Wirgman, Beato attempted to retire from the work of a photographer, attempting other ventures and delegating photographic work to others within his studio. The other ventures failed, but Beato’s photographic skills and personal popularity meant he was easily able to return to work as a photographer.
In 1871 Beato served as official photographer with the United States naval expedition of Admiral Rodgers to Korea, making the earliest photographs of Korea whose provenance is clear. On 6th August 1873 Beato was appointed Consul General for Greece in Japan. In 1877 Beato sold most of his stock to the firm Stillfried & Andersen, and apparently retired from photography for some years, focusing on his parallel career as a financial speculator and trader. On 29 November 1884 he left Japan, ultimately landing in Port Said, Egypt. It was reported in a Japanese newspaper that he had lost all his money on the Yokohama silver exchange.
From 1884 to 1885 Beato was the official photographer of the expeditionary forces led by Baron (later Viscount) G.J. Wolseley to Khartoum, Sudan, in relief of General Charles Gordon. Beato arrived in Burma probably in December 1886, after Upper Burma had been annexed by the British in late 1885, probably attracted by the news of the annexation after his experiences covering military operations in India and China. He arrived in Burma after the main military operations ended, but there followed an insurgency which lasted for the following decade. Beato photographed military operations as well as insurgency soldiers and prisoners.
Beato set up a photographic studio in Mandalay and, in 1894, a curiosa and antiques dealership, running both businesses separately and, according to records at the time, very successfully. His past experience and the credibility derived from his time in Japan brought him a large clientele of opulent locals, posing in traditional attire for official portraits. Other images, from Buddhas to landscapes and buildings, were sold from master albums in Burma and Europe. Beato’s photographs had come to represent the very image of Burma to the rest of the world, which it would remain for decades to come.
Although Beato was previously believed to have died in Rangoon or Mandalay in 1905 or 1906, his death certificate, discovered in 2009, indicates that he died on 29 January 1909 in Florence, Italy.
Work: The Second Opium War
In 1860 Beato left the partnership. He travelled from India to photograph the Anglo-French military expedition to China in the Second Opium War. He arrived in Hong Kong in March, and the images he took of the city and its surroundings under extreme wartime conditions are some of the earliest photographs taken in China. During his eight-month trek, Beato carried the cumbersome equipment needed for the albumen process: chemicals and large, fragile glass plates. While there, he met artist and correspondent for the Illustrated London News, Charles Wirgman. The two accompanied the Anglo-French forces travelling north to Talien Bay, then to Pehtang and the Taku Forts at the mouth of the Peiho, and on to Peking and Qingyi Yuan, the suburban Summer Palace. Wirgman’s (and others) illustrations for the Illustrated London News would often be derived from Beato’s photographs.
Beato’s photographs of the Second Opium War are the first to document a military campaign as it unfolded, doing so through a sequence of dated and related images, although the images were not always taken in order. His photographs of the Taku Forts form a narrative recreation of the battle: the approach to the forts, the effects of bombardments on the exterior walls and fortifications, and the bodies of dead Chinese soldiers within the forts. In contrast to his photographs of the conflict in India, Beato was able to capture battle scenes immediately after they occurred, rather than months later.
Just outside Peking, Beato took photographs of Quingyi Yuan (the Summer Palace), a private estate of the Emperor of China comprising palace pavilions, temples, a large artificial lake, and gardens. Beginning on 6th October, these buildings were plundered and looted by the Anglo-French forces, and torched by the British First Division on the 18th and 19th of October. Beato’s photographs taken between 6th and 18th October 1860 are unique recordings of the destroyed buildings. They appear to be the earliest images of Peking so far discovered, and are of the utmost historical and cultural importance.
Among the last photographs Beato took in China at this time were the signatories of the Convention of Peking, Lord Elgin and Prince Kung. Beato returned to England in October 1861, and during that winter he sold 400 of his photographs of India and China to Henry Hering, a London commercial portrait photographer.
References
Cabos, M. (2015). Felice Beato. [online] Photography of China – Pre-Mao, Mao & Post-Mao Era. Available at: http://photographyofchina.com/blog/felice-beato [Accessed 4 Jul. 2016].
Fisher, N. (2016). Photography in the Face of Adversity | the War Photographs of Felice Beato. [online] The Culture Trip. Available at: http://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/felice-beato-living-through-the-lens-of-war/ [Accessed 5 Jul. 2016].
Getty.edu. (2016). Felice Beato: A Photographer on the Eastern Road (Getty Center Exhibitions). [online] Available at: http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/beato/ [Accessed 5 Jul. 2016].
Wikipedia. (2016). Felice Beato. [online] Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felice_Beato [Accessed 4 Jul. 2016].
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