{"product_id":"description-view-city-sebastopol-assaults-malakhoff-redan-retreat-gnj2rgpn","title":"Description of a view of the city of Sebastopol, the assaults of the Malakhoff and the Redan, the retreat of the Russians to the north side of the harbour ...","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Siege of Sevastopol was the culminating episode of the Crimean War, lasting from October 1854 until September of 1855. It saw the Black Sea Fleet, and Russia’s most strategically important port, bombarded with artillery on a scale never before encountered in mechanised warfare. The casualties were heavy on both sides (the text speaks of a funeral service being read over a mass grave of over 700 corpses), but the Allied victory ultimately led to the defeat of the Russian forces. As such, the siege and its battle became the subject of great patriotic celebration and memorialisation in Victorian Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s no surprise therefore that the enterprising artist and showman Robert Burford would waste no time in depicting the vista of this famous battlefield as a paid attraction in his Leicester Square panorama. What differentiates this painting from its predecessors is the pioneering use of photography in its preparation. The Crimean War was the first major conflict to be documented through the then new technology of photography, and as the title page attests, this panorama was drafted “from sketches taken by Capt. Verschoyle, Grenadier Guards, aided by photographic views.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA contemporary notice in \u003cem\u003ePunch\u003c\/em\u003e described the attraction thus: “Sebastopol is depicted as firing and under fire, and the first impression derived from the view of the beleaguered city, presented by Mr. Burford, is that of astonishment at the preternatural stillness, comparatively speaking, of the scene. Comparatively speaking, because a considerable noise is being made by Mrs. Major M’Gab, or some other military lady, who is sure to be present, and to be explaining the positions of the Allies with commanding gestures, in a loud voice. Astonishment, because the picture has such an air of reality, and the smoke of the bombardment looks so particularly natural, as to make you wonder at not bearing the artillery’s roar and the cracks of the rifles.” (\u003cem\u003ePunch\u003c\/em\u003e, August 25, 1855).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe panorama was open by August of 1855, before the siege was even technically over. As such, the introduction to this second edition has been entirely rewritten to incorporate the results of the final months of the conflict.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis panorama is scarce. Copies of the 1855 edition are held at Yale, U. Illinois, Suny Binghamton, Getty, BL, Brown, LoC, however OCLC finds a copy of this second edition at BL only.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Maggs Bros.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48377994281117,"sku":"263242","price":750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0669\/0045\/9677\/files\/263242_01.jpg?v=1780659608","url":"https:\/\/store.maggs.com\/products\/description-view-city-sebastopol-assaults-malakhoff-redan-retreat-gnj2rgpn","provider":"Maggs Bros.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}