Francis Bedford (1815 in London – 15 May 1894) was one of England's most prominent landscape photographers and the first to accompany a

royal tour A state visit is a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country, at the invitation of the head of state of that foreign country, with the latter also acting as the official host for the duration of the state visit. Speaking for the host ...

Early life

Bedford was the eldest son of the successful church architect

Francis Octavius Bedford Francis Octavius Bedford (1784–1858) was an English ecclesiastical architect, who designed four Greek Revival churches in south London during the 1820s. He later worked in the Gothic style. Life and career Little is known about Bedford's early ...

. He was christened at St Giles in Camberwell on 11 September 1815. He began his career as an architectural draughtsman and lithographer, before taking up photography in the early 1850s.

Career

He helped to found the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

in 1853. In 1854, at

Marlborough House Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It was built in 1711 for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marl ...

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

commissioned him to photograph objects in the royal collection and in 1857 she commissioned him to photograph her husband Prince Albert's hometown of

Coburg, Germany Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it ...

. There followed several more royal commissions, and his series of stereographs of England and Wales have come to be regarded as some of the finest landscape works of their time. Following the death of Prince Albert in 1861 his eldest son, Prince Albert (later

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

), invited Bedford to photograph his extensive tour of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, the first royal tour to be photographically documented. For much of his career Bedford tended towards photography as an art form, painting in clouds, enhancing fine detail with pencil or brushes, and using tissue paper to darken negatives to improve lighting, but by the late 1870s, he was an advocate of simplicity. Between 1851 and 1894 he produced nearly 9,000 wet collodion negatives and albumen prints, making him one of the most prolific landscape photographers of his time.

Personal life

Grave of Francis Bedford in Highgate Cemetery

On 1 November 1843 he married Mary Graham at St Andrew's in Holborn, London. The couple appear on the 1851 census living at 23 Rochester Road, Kentish Town, London, with their two young sons, Arthur and William. Francis gave 'Lithographic Artist' as his profession. When the 1861 census was taken, Francis, now an 'Artist', was staying at a hotel in Peterborough. Ten years later he and Mary were living at 326 Camden Road, London. Francis now gave 'Photographic Artist' as his profession. He was still at the same address in 1881. Also present that night were his wife Mary, his son William, his daughter-in-law Wilhelmina, and his six-year-old grandson Francis. He died on 15 May 1894 and is buried on the west side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

, close to the grave of another celebrated Victorian photographer, Henry White.

Photography records

On 19 February 2009

Swann Galleries Swann Galleries is a New York City auction house founded in 1941. It is a specialist auctioneer of antique and rare works on paper, and it is considered the oldest continually operating New York specialist auction house. The company has separat ...

set an auction record for Bedford's work ''Photographic Pictures Made by Mr. Francis Bedford During the Tour in the East'', a suite of three albums from 1862. The albums sold for $132,000.

Collections

Duke University Libraries Duke University Libraries is the library system of Duke University, serving the university's students and faculty. The Libraries collectively hold some 6 million volumes. The collection contains 17.7 million manuscripts, 1.2 million public documen ...

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

Department of Image Collections
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The Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

National Galleries of Scotland National Galleries of Scotland ( gd, Gailearaidhean Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the National Collections ...

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

Ryerson Image Centre

Gallery

File:River Elwy (ca. 1860).png, ''

River Elwy The River Elwy (''Afon Elwy'' in Welsh) is a river in Wales forming a tributary to the River Clwyd. The source of the river is sometimes said to be on the northern flank of Moel Seisiog, south-east of Llanrwst, at Ordnance Survey grid refer ...

'' File:Francis Bedford - The Sphinx, the Great Pyramid and two lesser Pyramids, Ghizeh, Egypt - Google Art Project.jpg, ''

Sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...

'' and ''

Egyptian pyramids The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Sources cite at least 118 identified "Egyptian" pyramids. Approximately 80 pyramids were built within the Kingdom of Kush, now located in the modern country of Sudan. Of ...

'' File:Francis Bedford (1815-94) - The Temple of the Sun and Temple of Jupiter, Baalbek, Lebanon - 4 May 1862.jpg, ''The Temple of the Sun and Temple of Jupiter'',

Baalbek Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...

1862 File:Bedford, Teignmouth - View in the Harbour.jpg, '' Teignmouth - View in the Harbour'' File:Bedford, (West Facade of Exeter Cathedral).jpg, ''West Facade of Exeter Cathedral'' 1864 or 1865 File:Bedford, Teignmouth - Arched Rock Beneath the Ness.jpg, ''Teignmouth - Arched Rock Beneath the Ness'' File:Kenilworth Castle by Francis Bedford.jpg, Francis Bedford, Kenilworth Castle, England, 1860s, albumen print
Department of Image Collections
National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC

References

1816 births 1894 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery 19th-century English photographers Photographers from London Early photographers in Palestine {{UK-photographer-stub