Antonio Beato (after 1832 – 1906), also known as Antoine Beato, was a British and Italian photographer. He is noted for his genre works, portraits, views of the architecture and landscapes of Egypt and the other locations in the Mediterranean region. He was the younger brother of photographer Felice Beato (1832–1909), with whom he sometimes worked.
Little is known of Antonio Beato's origins but he was probably born in Venetian territory after 1832, and later became a naturalised British citizen. His brother, at least, was born in Venice, but the family may have moved to Corfu, which had been a Venetian possession until 1814 when it was acquired by Britain.
Because of the existence of a number of photographs signed "Felice Antonio Beato" and "Felice A. Beato", it was long assumed that there was one photographer who somehow managed to photograph at the same time in places as distant as Egypt and Japan. But in 1983 it was shown by Italo Zannier (Bennett 1996, 38) that "Felice Antonio Beato" represented two brothers, Felice Beato and Antonio Beato, who sometimes worked together, sharing a signature. The confusion arising from the signatures continues to cause problems in identifying which of the two photographers was the creator of a given image.
Antonio often used the French version of his given name, going by Antoine Beato. It is presumed that he did so because he mainly worked in Egypt, which had a large French-speaking population.
In 1853 or 1854 Antonio's brother and James Robertson formed a photographic partnership called "Robertson & Beato". Antonio joined them on photographic expeditions to Malta in 1854 or 1856 and to Greece and Jerusalem in 1857. A number of the firm's photographs produced in the 1850s are signed "Robertson, Beato and Co." and it is believed that the "and Co." refers to Antonio.
In late 1854 or early 1855 James Robertson married the Beato brothers' sister, Leonilda Maria Matilda Beato[1]. They had three daughters, Catherine Grace (born in 1856), Edith Marcon Vergence (born in 1859) and Helen Beatruc (born in 1861).
Members of Ikeda Nagaoki's Japanese Mission to Europe in front of the Sphinx, Egypt, 1864. Albumen print.
A self-portrait of Robertson sitting next to Beato, dressed in traditional Turkish costume – also a salt print painted over in watercolours, completed in 1855.In July 1858 Antonio joined Felice in Calcutta. Felice had been in India since the beginning of the year photographing the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Antonio also photographed in India until December 1859 when he left Calcutta, probably for health reasons, and headed for Malta by way of Suez.
Antonio Beato went to Cairo in 1860 where he spent two years before moving to Luxor where he opened a photographic studio in 1862 and began producing tourist images of the people and architectural sites of the area. In the late 1860s, Beato was in partnership with Hippolyte Arnoux.
In 1864, at a time when his brother Felice was living and photographing in Japan, Antonio photographed members of Ikeda Nagaoki's Japanese mission who were visiting Egypt on their way to France.
Antonio Beato died in Luxor in 1906. His widow published a notice of his death while offering a house and equipment for sale.
A Freemason, he was member of a masonic Lodge in Beirut and later joined the Bulwer Lodge Nr. 1068 in Cairo and was co-petitioner for the foundation of the Grecia Lodge Nr. 1105 in the Egyptian capital.
Pictured Felice Beato[2[
James Robertson, Abdullah Brothers, CA. 1875
[1] In 1855, Robertson married Leonilda Maria Matilda Beato. She belonged to a Levantine family with roots in Venice. Robertson later taught the craft of photography to his wife’s brother, Felice Beato. He also freed himself from responsibilities at the mint to work as a photographer during the Crimean War, in which England, France, and Sardinia allied themselves with the Ottoman Empire to fight against Russia. The scenes that Robertson shot with Felice Beato are among the earliest examples of war photography. SOURCE
Robertson most likely gave up photography in the 1860s – the Robertson & Beato Company was dissolved in 1867 and he returned to work as an engraver at the Imperial Ottoman Mint until his retirement in 1881 (although he went on to display his paintings until 1881). His reason for giving up professional photography is unknown, but the works he did produce produce demonstrate his obvious talent and quiet achievement.
SOURCE
Although French interest in Turquerie dates back to the 16th century with the increase of mercantile and political relations after the Franco-Ottoman alliance of 1536, British Orientalism brings to mind both a later period and often more distinctly Middle Eastern or Arab-African locations and subjects – English painter John Frederick Lewis’s Cairo scenes, perhaps, or Scottish landscape artist David Roberts’ Syria and Palestine. James Robertson’s 19th-century photographs of the Ottoman capital betray a documentary, preservationist impulse: they present a different world to the lounging odalisques and decorated harems of French painters such as Jean-Léon Gérôme and Eugène Delacroix. The photographer and engraver looked on Constantinople with the eye of a veteran expatriate...His photography is by no means pedantic: naturalistically featuring people going about their daily lives with no thought to the alien apparatus capturing their image, they depict a living, breathing city even as they lay claim to no more than historical documentation. Indeed, to a contemporary Istanbulite, Robertson’s shot of the pretzel-sellers milling about in the shadow of Galata Tower is nothing short of a jolt of the uncanny – the familiarly quotidian sight revealing itself to have been a ghost from the past all along. SOURCE
[2] Felice Beato's business ventures in Japan were numerous. He owned land and several studios, was a property consultant, had a financial interest in the Grand Hotel of Yokohama, and was a dealer in imported carpets and women's bags, among other things. He also appeared in court on several occasions, variously as plaintiff, defendant, and witness. On 6 August 1873 Beato was appointed Consul General for Greece in Japan. In 1877 Beato sold most of his stock to the firm Stillfried & Andersen, who then moved into his studio. In turn, Stillfried & Andersen sold the stock to Adolfo Farsari in 1885.[49] Following the sale to Stillfried & Andersen, Beato apparently retired for some years from photography, concentrating on his parallel career as a financial speculator and trader. On 29 November 1884 he left Japan, ultimately landing in Port Said, Egypt. It was reported in a Japanese newspaper that he had lost all his money on the Yokohama silver exchange.