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FÉLICE BÉATO (French, 1835-1906) HEAD QUARTER STAFF - PEHTANG FORT vintage albumen print mounted on

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
FÉLICE BÉATO (French, 1835-1906) HEAD QUARTER STAFF - PEHTANG FORT vintage albumen print mounted on
FÉLICE BÉATO (French, 1835-1906) HEAD QUARTER STAFF - PEHTANG FORT vintage albumen print mounted on paper 10 x 1113/16 in. (25 x 30 cm) August 2-12, 1860 ESTIMATE: $3,000-4,000 PROVENANCE Harry Lunn, NEW YORK & PARIS Private Collection, FRANCE LITERATURE David Harris, OF BATTLE AND BEAUTY: FELICE BéATO'S PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINA, Santa Barbara, 2000, cover image and p. 56, cat. no. 8 (illustrated; detail illustrated on p. 14) In 1860, Felice Béato accompanied English forces to China for eight months and recorded every stage of the campaign of the Second Opium War. David Harris points out that Béato made two types of photographs in his documentation of the war. The first show the brutal carnage of the dead Chinese soldiers shortly after battle. Béato would rush in and plead that the scene not be disrupted before he could photograph. The other type, seen in this lot, are carefully orchestrated compositions--symbolic portraits of the victors, and might be considered propaganda. The figures are carefully posed, the British flag flies proudly above the fort, and even the detritus of war is deliberately positioned. Harris suggests these scenes were orchestrated because the subjects were likely customers for his prints. (David Harris, OF BATTLE AND BEAUTY: FELICE BéATO'S PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINA, Santa Barbara, 2000, p. 29)