The Council of War on the Morning of the Taking of the Mamelon. Lord Raglan, Omar Pasha, Marshal Pélissier

Art Historical Context

In 1855, pioneering British photographer Roger Fenton captured a pivotal moment during the Crimean War with his albumen silver printThe Council of War on Morning of the Taking of the Mamelon. Lord Raglan, Omar, Marshal Pélissier*. This intimate scene depicts three Allied commanders—British Lord Raglan, Ottoman Omar Pasha, and French Marshal Pélissier—strategizing amid the Siege of Sevastopol. Taken just before the successful Allied assault on the Mamelon Vert fortification on June 7, the image freezes a tense prelude to battle, highlighting the fragile multinational coalition fighting Russian forces. Fenton's photograph exemplifies early war photography, produced via the wet-collodion process on glass negatives, then printed on albumen paper for its sharp detail and warm tones. As one of the first photographers to document a conflict on-site, Fenton hauled a custom "photographic van" to Crimea, overcoming logistical challenges to create enduring visual records. Though he avoided gore, his work humanized the war's leaders, offering viewers a rare glimpse into command decisions. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this 7½ × 6½-inch print underscores photography's emerging power as historical testimony, bridging art and journalism in the mid-19th century.

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...