131
well as the street and studio-based ‘costumes’ of early
Japanese photography. In later life, he produced a similar
portfolio of photographs during an equally lengthy resi-
dence in Burma, where he possibly died around 1908.
For over fi fty years into the early twentieth century,
Beato’s photographs of Asia constituted the standard
imagery of travel diaries, illustrated newspapers, and
other published accounts, and thus helped shape ‘West-
ern’ notions of several Asian societies.
See Also: Beato, Antonio; Robertson, James;
Gardner, Alexander; Fenton, Roger; von Stillfried und
Ratenitz, Baron Raimund; and Kusakabe Kimbei.
Further Reading
Clark, John, John Fraser and Colin Osman, ‘A revised chronol-
ogy of Felice (Felix) Beato (1825/34?–1908?),’ in John Clark,
Japanese Exchanges in Art, 1850s–1930s, with Britain, Con-
tinental Europe and the USA, Sydney: Power Publications,
2001, 89–120.
Dobson, Sebastian, ‘‘I been to keep up my position’: Felice
Beato in Japan, 1863–1877,’ in Refl ecting Truth: Japanese
Photography in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Nicole Coolidge
Rousmaniere and Mikiko Hirayama, Amsterdam: Hotei Pub-
lishing, 2004, 30–39.
Gartlan, Luke, ‘James Robertson and Felice Beato in the Crimea:
Recent Findings,’ History of Photography, vol. 29, no. 1
(Spring 2005), 72–80.
Harris, David, Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato’s Photographs
of China, Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art,
1999.
Harris, David, ‘Topography and Memory: Felice Beato’s Pho-
tographs of India, 1858–1859,’ in India Through the Lens:
Photography 1840–1911, Washington: Freer Gallery of Art
and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2000, 119–131. (exhibition
catalogue)
Philipp, Claudia Gabriele, Dietmar Siegert and Rainer Wick, Fe -
lice Beato in Japan: Photographien zum Ende der Feudalzeit
1863–1873, München: Edition Braus, 1991.
Rennie, David Field, The British Arms in Northern China and
Japan: Pekin 1860; Kagoshima 1862, London: John Mur-
ray, 1864.
Robichon, F r a n ç o i s a n d A n d r é R o u i l l é (editors), Jean-Charles
Langlois: La Photographie, la peinture, la guerre: correspon-
dance inédite de Crimée, 1855–1856, Nîmes: J. Chambon,
1992.
Schmidt, Vera (editor), Korrespondenz Alexander von Siebolds
in den Archiven des japanischen Außenministeriums und
der Tokyo-Universität 1859–1895 (Acta Sieboldiana IX:
Veröffentlichungen des Ostasien-Instituts der Ruhr-Univer-
sität Bochum), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000.
Singer, Noel F., ‘Felice Beato’s “Burmese Days,”’ Arts of Asia,
vol. 28, no. 5 (September-October 1998), 96–107.
Thiriez, Régine, Barbarian Lens: Western Photographers of the
Qianlong Emperor’s European Palaces, Amsterdam: Gordon
and Breach, 1998.
White, Stephen. ‘Felix Beato and the First Korean War, 1871,’ The
Photographic Collector, vol. 3, no. 1 (Spring 1982), 76–85.
Worswick, Clark, Japan: Photographs, 1854–1905, New York:
Pennwick, 1979.
Zannier, Italo, Verso Oriente: fotografi e di Antonio e Felice Beato,
Firenze: Alinari, 1986.
BÉCHARD, HENRI AND ÉMILE, AND
DÉLIÉ, HIPPLOYTE (active 1869–1880s)
French, commercial photographers
Henri Béchard operated a photographic studio in Cairo
in the Ezbekiah Garden district from which he sold
rather standard tourist views, as well as a series of
types and costume studies. In 1888 he published with
A. Palmiere, a set of photogravures, “L’Égypte et la
Nubie.” Émile Bechard, assumed to be related to Henri,
formed a studio with Hipployte Délié. Prior to coming
to Cairo—no doubt attracted by the infl ux of visitors
and potential customers at the time of the opening of the
Suez Canal, which also coincided with the fi rst pack-
age tourist trips to Egypt—Délié had worked supplying
travel views for wood engravings for Le Tour du Monde.
Délié et Bechard had the photographic concession at the
Cairo antiquities museum and produced the handsome
Album du Musée Boulaq: Photographie par Délié et
Béchard, avec texte explicatif par Auguste Marriette Bey
(Cairo, 1872). The partnership was dissolved sometime
after publication and both continued to work in Egypt
as commercial photographers. Both received medals at
the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition.
Kathleen HoweBECQUEREL, ALEXANDRE EDMOND
(1820–1891)
French scientist and physicist
Becquerel was born in 1820 and is known for his studies
in light, photochemistry, and phosphorescence. In the
fi eld of photography his main contribution is in color
recording experiments. Before describing his work in
the fi eld of photography, it is necessary to mention the
research in color recording performed before Becquerel.
After the invention of black-and-white photography a
lot of research was devoted to the possibility of record-
ing natural color images. Even before photography
was invented, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published
a book on light and color (Zur Farbenlehre), in which
light and color recordings were discussed. Experiments
performed by Johann Thomas Seebeck (1770–1831)
was included as an appendix in Goethe’s book and is
probably the fi rst (about 1810) contribution to color
photography. Seebeck made experiments in which solar
spectra were projected onto silver-chloride impregnated
paper. The recording which unfortunately could not be
preserved (fi xed) showed colors which were induced
by the different colors of the solar spectrum. The
philosophical explanation of this was: “light chose to
impress itself on material objects in its own colours.”
Thus, it makes sense to describe such a process a natural
color-recording technique. To some extent Becquerel’s