Call Number:

C1380

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 1 linear foot

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); James Robertson photographs collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

circa 1854 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Robertson, James, 1813-1888

Form:

Albumen prints -- Greece -- 19th century. and Photographs -- Greece -- 19th century.

Abstract:

James Robertson was one of the first prominent traveller-photographers to depict scenes of mid-nineteenth century Greece. Of Scottish descent, he has been identified as the engraver James Robertson, who worked in London around 1830. He first settled in Constantinople in 1841, where he spent forty years of his life working as a master engraver in the imperial mint. His photography career began in the early 1850's when he opened a photographer's studio in Peran, the European district of Constantinople. His photographs, which were immediately popular among the art lovers of his period, appeared in international exhibitions in Paris and London and were frequently reproduced in the leading periodical "The London Illustrated News". He died in 1888 in Yokohama. Robertson earned his place in the history of photography with his coverage of the Crimean war, and with his photographs of Constantinople and other historical Mediterranean sites, such as Athens, Malta, Damascus, Egypt and the Holy Land. A close study of his work in Athens reveals that he first visited the city in 1853-1854 and probably returned later with Felice Beato, another renowned, somewhat younger, photographer. The monuments of the Acropolis (Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Parthenon, Erechtheum) and the city of Athens (Temple of Olympian Zeus, Tower of the Winds, Gate of Athena Archegetis, Lysicrates Monument) as well as the Temples of Poseidon in Sounion, Aphaia on the island of Aegina, and Apollo in Corinth were magnificently portrayed by his camera while contemporary Athens was only infrequently depicted or used as a setting for its ancient remains. Although he rarely photographed people in his early work, in later work he handled them with consummate skill as a means of alleviating the monotony of ancient ruins and as an allusion to contemporary paintings. (http://www.benaki.gr/index.asp?id=1020101&lang=en) Consists of an open collection of photographs of Robertson.

James Robertson was one of the first prominent traveller-photographers to depict scenes of mid-nineteenth century Greece. Of Scottish descent, he has been identified as the engraver James Robertson, who worked in London around 1830. He first settled in Constantinople in 1841, where he spent forty years of his life working as a master engraver in the imperial mint. His photography career began in the early 1850's when he opened a photographer's studio in Peran, the European district of Constantinople. His photographs, which were immediately popular among the art lovers of his period, appeared in international exhibitions in Paris and London and were frequently reproduced in the leading periodical "The London Illustrated News". He died in 1888 in Yokohama. Robertson earned his place in the history of photography with his coverage of the Crimean war, and with his photographs of Constantinople and other historical Mediterranean sites, such as Athens, Malta, Damascus, Egypt and the Holy Land. A close study of his work in Athens reveals that he first visited the city in 1853-1854 and probably returned later with Felice Beato, another renowned, somewhat younger, photographer. The monuments of the Acropolis (Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Parthenon, Erechtheum) and the city of Athens (Temple of Olympian Zeus, Tower of the Winds, Gate of Athena Archegetis, Lysicrates Monument) as well as the Temples of Poseidon in Sounion, Aphaia on the island of Aegina, and Apollo in Corinth were magnificently portrayed by his camera while contemporary Athens was only infrequently depicted or used as a setting for its ancient remains. Although he rarely photographed people in his early work, in later work he handled them with consummate skill as a means of alleviating the monotony of ancient ruins and as an allusion to contemporary paintings. (http://www.benaki.gr/index.asp?id=1020101&lang=en)

Consists of an open collection of photographs of Robertson. Currently, there are 4 albumen prints mounted on board of classical sites in Athens, Greece. Included are: a general view of the Acropolis (23.5 x 30.4 cm.); the Erechtheum from the west (25.1 x 29.9 cm); the main Propylaea building from the east (24.8 x 30.2 cm.); and a view of the Parthenon from the northwest (22.9 x 30.0 cm.). All the images are captioned and three are signed in the print.