BALAKLAVA CRIMEAN PENINSULA 1855 SIMPSON UNUSUAL ANTIQUE LITHOGRAPHIC VIEW

Description: Striking and highly detailed interesting 1855 original colored lithographic view from the heights above Balaklava, Crimean Peninsula.
 
Author: Drawn in the field by the renowned Scottish artist and war correspondent William Simpson and engraved in stone by the lithographer Jonathan Needham.
 
Publication: Published in London on May 4, 1855, by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. as part of the monumental collection "The Seat of War in the East." The physical print was produced by the renowned royal printing house Day & Son.
 
Historical and Geographical Context: The work offers a broad panoramic view of the Crimean Peninsula, showing an outpost and an Allied military camp, characterized by typical bell tents and defensive fortifications.
 
On the left: The natural inlet leading to the strategic port and bay of Balaklava.
 
In the background: The broad, barren hilly landscape extending toward the horizon in the direction of Sevastopol, showing the exact terrain where the bloody battles of Balaklava (25 October 1854) and Inkerman (5 November 1854) took place.
 
Source; William Simpson. The Seat of the War in the East. London: Paul and Dominic Colnaghi, 1855-1856.
 
The Crimean War
 
The Crimean War, fought from October 1853 to February 1856, was an armed conflict between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman, British, French, and Sardinian forces. The root cause of the war has never been fully understood, but the stated impetus was to defend the rights of Christians in the Holy Land, with the Catholic interests supported by the French and the Greek Orthodox Church by the Russians. The more likely root was British and French concerns about Russian expansion into the Bosporus and Mediterranean at the cost of the declining Ottoman empire.
 
Hostilities erupted in July 1853 when Russia invaded two Ottoman suzerainties known collectively as the Danubian Principalities, labeled here as Wallachia and Moldavia. The Ottomans immediately responded, fighting a defensive campaign that halted the Russian advance at Silistra, which the Russians besieged. Alarmed by the possibility of an Ottoman collapse, the British and French entered the war, sending troops and supplies to Gallipoli. They did not arrive at Silistra until after the Russians had withdrawn.
 
By this time, public opinion in Britain and France, where discontent at the seemingly wasted effort and expense of sending armies to the Balkans, turned against the war. Hoping to finish the war quickly, the allies invaded the Crimean Peninsula in September, hoping to seize the Russian naval port of Sevastopol, thereby limiting Russian ability to wage war in the Black Sea arena. The supposedly 'quick and easy' siege lasted for eleven months. Russia finally sued for peace in March 1856 and in the subsequent Treaty of Paris, Russia lost its Black Sea ports, Wallachia and Moldavia gained a modicum of independence, and Christians in the Holy Land were given a degree of equality.
 
Date: 1855 ( dated )

Dimensions: Paper size approx.: cm 50,8 x 32,3

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Sheet old original colored. Corners partially missing. Small foxing and browning. Small marginal tears. Conditions are as you can see in the images.

Artist: William Simpson (28 October 1823 – 17 August 1899) was a Scottish artist, war artist and war correspondent. Born into poverty in Glasgow, Simpson went on to become one of the leading 'special artists' of his day, and sketched many scenes of war for the Illustrated London News. His early years were difficult living in a house with an abusive and alcoholic father, and in 1834 he was sent to live with his grandmother in Perth. Simpson's only formal schooling took place during this period and within a few years, he was working as an apprentice in the Glasgow lithographic firm of Macfarlane.[2] The artist stated later that "this was the turning point which changed all my boyish intentions." In Glasgow he attended the Andersonian University and the Mechanics Institute in the evenings. After the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, he was given the task of creating an image of the Alma based on various accounts so that it could be lithographed by another London publisher, Lloyd's. He also put sketches sent from the Baltic onto stone for the firm of Colnaghi. In anticipation of the fall of Sebastopol, Lloyd's had him prepare an image of the fall of the town so that it could be published upon news of its actual capture. This presented a challenge to Simpson as he had little information about Sebastopol. He occasionally spoke with Mr. Day of Day and Son about the need to have sketches drawn at the front. Shortly thereafter, Colnaghi's contacted Simpson and invited him to go out to the Crimea and make sketches for the company.
 
Simpson arrived off the Crimean peninsula on 15 November 1854 and could hear distant firing. While he had missed the early battles, he was able to record the events before Sebastopol. He made numerous acquaintances who helped him with details for his pictures, but he was also struck by the plight of the common soldiers, "miserable looking beings...covered with mud, dirt, and rags," he wrote. He socialised with many officers, including Lord Raglan and Captain Peel; he also met Roger Fenton who took his photograph. In May 1855, Simpson accompanied Raglan on the expedition to Kertch which was captured on the 24th, but was back in time to observe the first attack on Sebastopol in June. On the night of the 17th, he crawled out of a trench to view the attack. He wrote, "It was a wild orchestra of sound, never to be forgotten." He was still at the front when the city surrendered, and he quit the Crimea in the autumn of 1855.
 
Publishers: Colnaghi is an art dealership in St James's, central London, England, which is the oldest commercial art gallery in the world, having been established in 1760. The business that became the Colnaghi gallery was established by Italian firework manufacturer, Giovanni Battista Torre, in Paris, France, in 1760. Torre opened a shop with the name "Cabinet de Physique Expérimentale", where he sold scientific instruments, books and prints. In 1767, Torre's son Anthony Torre moved to London where he opened a sister shop, specialising in prints, in partnership with another Italian immigrant, Anthony Molteno. Giovanni Torre died in 1780, and in 1784 Anthony Torre hired Paul Colnaghi—newly arrived in Paris from Milan—to manage a new shop in Palais Royal, Paris.
 
Paul Colnaghi (1751-1833)
 
Paul Colnaghi was born in 1751 as Paolo Colnago, in the Brianza region of northern Italy. He was the younger child of the influential Milanese lawyer Dr Martino Colnago and Ippolita Colnaga (née Raggi).[2] He arrived in Paris after his father's death in 1783, where he initially worked for a Milanese optician named Ciceri, before Ciceri recommended Colnaghi's services to his friend Anthony Torre. Paul Colnaghi served as Torre's Paris agent (1784-7), mainly selling prints from England, but he left Paris for London in May 1785. Arriving in London, Colnaghi joined Torre and Molteno, who had become successful selling prints by leading engravers such as William Wynne Ryland and Valentine Green. The London business moved to 132 Pall Mall in 1786 and Colnaghi married Anthony Torre's sister-in-law Elizabeth Baker. Anthony Torre retired to Italy in 1788, and Molteno took over as senior partner. The firm operated as Molteno, Colnaghi & Co. Colnaghi now ran the original firm with a succession of partners,concentrating on selling new prints and engravings of Old Master paintings. He published a very popular series of engravings, the Cries of London, from 1792 to 1797. He also moved premises to 23 Cockspur Street in 1799, and survived the disruption to his trade caused by the Napoleonic Wars. Paul Colnaghi's elder son Dominic Charles (sometimes also given as Dominic Paul) became a partner in around 1810, and later his younger son Martin also became a partner. The firm held monthly levées at its premises for its customers, many from the British aristocracy. Colnaghi became the official print-seller to the Prince Regent, and he was asked to organise the Royal Collection, receiving a Royal Warrant when the Prince Regent became George IV. Colnaghi was also print-seller to George's sister, Charlotte, Princess Royal, later Queen of Württemberg. Colnaghi's impending retirement to Italy was postponed when his son Martin sued both his father and his brother Dominic in 1824. The settlement of the lawsuit left Martin with the old shop. Martin became bankrupt in 1832 and 1843, and died in 1851, but his son Martin Henry Colnaghi, continued the separate business in Pall Mall. Paul and Dominic Colnaghi moved to 14 Pall Mall East—near the nascent National Gallery. Dominic married Katherine Pontet (d.1881) on 15 October 1831, and settled at 62 Margaret street, Cavendish square. Paul Colnaghi continued to work in the business until he died at his home at St George's Place Hanover Square, on 26 August 1833.
 
Dominic Colnaghi (1790–1879) and John Scott (d.1864)
 
Caroline Scott's son, John Anthony Scott, joined his cousin Dominic Colnaghi in the business in 1839. Scott commissioned William Simpson to go to the Crimea in 1854 to make watercolour sketches of scenes from the Crimean War, published as a series of 81 lithographs in The Seat of War in the East. The gallery also sold photographs by Roger Fenton. After this early experience with photography, the gallery commissioned Leonida Caldesi and Mattia Montecchi to take photographs at the Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857, published in Gems of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1858, and Colnaghi published artistic photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron from 1864.
 
The firm was associated with John Constable, assisting him to exhibit The Hay Wain at the Paris Salon in 1824, where it won a gold medal. The art dealership organised exhibitions for the British Institution, and of paintings by Eugène Delacroix in 1829.
 
After Scott died in 1864, and Dominic Colnaghi retired in 1865, Scott's cousin Andrew McKay (d. 1899) became sole proprietor. He was joined by his son William KcKay in 1879. "Old Dom" Colnaghi died the same year, on 19 December, and was buried in Brompton cemetery.[citation needed] He was survived by his wife Katherine (also spelled Catherine) and by his two sons.