Major General Garrett and Officers of the 46th

Art Historical Context

In 1855, amid the grueling Crimean War (1853–1856), pioneering photographer Roger Fenton captured *Major General Garrett and Officers the 46th*, a formal group portrait of British military leaders. Fenton, often hailed as one of the first war photographers, traveled to the Crimea at the behest of the British press to document the conflict's human side. This salted paper print, plate 46 from his seminal 1856 album *Photographs Taken the Crimea*, offers a rare glimpse into the poised camaraderie of officers like Major General Garrett, contrasting the war's harsh realities of disease and siege. The salted paper process, an early wet-collodion technique, produced the image's characteristic soft, warm tones on paper sensitized with salt and silver nitrate—resulting in a delicate, matte finish that measured just 20.2 × 16.1 cm. Fenton's large-format camera and deliberate posing elevated photography from mere documentation to portraiture, influencing how wars were visually recorded for public consumption back home. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media Department, this work underscores photography's emerging role in shaping public perception of empire and valor. It humanizes the Crimean War's unsung hierarchies, reminding visitors of Fenton's artistry in freezing history's fleeting moments.

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...