Small mosque in the Kaiser Bagh, Lucknow, 1858

Photograph by Felice Beato (1825-1907), Indian Mutiny (1857-1859), 1858.

Beato was born in Venice, but probably living in Malta when he met the photographer James Robertson in 1850. Robertson married his sister, and at some point taught him photography. A few years later, in 1854, Beato was assisting Robertson when he was photographing in the Crimea. By 1857 Beato was a partner and the two photographers probably travelled together to India, arriving around the time of the Indian Mutiny. It is not clear whether Beato or the partnership was commissioned by the War Office or the East India Company to take pictures showing the damage caused by the war, but it seems it was Beato who actually took all the pictures. He reached Lucknow in March 1858, a few weeks after the capture of the city by Sir Colin Campbell, and took over 60 pictures there.