1201
he himself accepted an appointment as Chief Engraver
at the Imperial Mint in Constantinople (present-day
Istanbul), and held that position for forty years, until his
retirement on October 29th 1881. Within days he sailed
with his family to Yokohama, to join his brother-in-law
and business partner, Felice Beato. He died in Japan on
April 18th 1888.
The move to Constantinople, which may have begun
for Robertson as a young man’s light-hearted adventure,
proved to be a step which changed the course of his
life. Highly respected for his work, a senior offi cer of
the Mint, and honoured several times for exemplary
service, he still found time to open another avenue of
artistic achievement. At some stage in 1852, possibly
inspired by the example of another expatriate, the French
engineer Ernest de Caranza, he took up photography,
and for the next fi fteen years devoted considerable time
and effort to mastering the new art, and establishing a
new business.
Conditions conspired to favour his ambitions. Con-
stantinople itself was a prize for any photographer,
exotic, picturesque, still little known but much dreamed
of by westerners as the epitome of oriental mystery and
romance. The recent, ever-expanding network of regular
rail and steamship services throughout Europe and the
Mediterranean basin had also put within easy reach
of the city regions held in special honour: Greece, the
cradle of Western civilization, and also Egypt and the
Holy Land, the settings for hallowed events in the Old
Testament and the New. Besides these places of timeless
signifi cance, there was one other which achieved great
topical importance for a short time. The Crimean Penin-
sula, site of the war fought between Russia and the Al-
lied Forces of Britain, France and Turkey in 1854–1856,
lay just one full day’s voyage from Constantinople.
Each of these territories was tapped for treasure by
Robertson during his photographic period. Permanent
residency in Constantinople made it possible for him
to record at leisure the city’s splendid buildings and
characteristic street life. Images from other places were
gathered in short, concentrated camera forays. His fi rst
album of Constantinople views was published in London
in December 1853; his fi rst sample of Grecian antiquities
followed in 1854. As a pioneer war reporter, Robertson
paid several brief visits to the Crimea between June 1855
and late spring 1856. On his way from the Crimea to
England that summer, he stopped for a while in Malta, to
take and sell photographs there as well, before continu-
ing on his journey. With his two Beato brothers-in-law
he made an excursion to Egypt and the Holy Land in
the spring of 1857, and re-visited Greece later that year.
After this fl urry of activity the pace slowed, but a number
of albums fi lled with assorted views of Constantinople,
Athens and Jerusalem were issued at intervals until
the autumn of 1867, when the end of his photographic
adventure was announced by the sale of his business
premises and all their contents.
Robertson’s career had developed along logical and
harmonious lines. In his days he was not only an en-
graver by profession, but also an amateur enthusiast who
made charming, lively watercolours and sketches of the
daily life around him. For such a young man, with an
artist’s training and an artist’s eye, who was also making
a home for himself in a strange, exciting world, it was
natural to pick up a new toy, the camera, and play with
it. Very soon he realized that he was ideally placed to
derive profi t as well as pleasure from the hobby. He tried
many ways to bring his pictures to the attention of the
public, and his enterprise provides an insight into the
workings of the early photographic market.
By the end of 1854 he had established a studio in
Constantinople, from which he sold prints to Western
residents of the city, and to travellers passing through.
From 1856 he expanded his business by working for a
few years with Felice Beato, a photographer who went
on later to an adventurous career in the Far East.
Robertson’s pictures could be bought in London and
Paris, and viewed there in photographic exhibitions.
They were to be found in ports of call, like Malta, on the
Mediterranean route, or purchased at a military camp in
the Crimea. Engravings based on his work appeared inROBERTSON, JAMES
Robertson, James. A Turkish Lady. From the “Hickes Album”
1855–1860.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty
Museum.