Frederick Fiebig

thumb|alt=St Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta|"St Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta," hand-coloured photographic print, by Frederick Fiebig. Dated 1851.

'''Frederick Fiebig''' was a German-born photographer, best known for his photographs of 19th-century British India, Ceylon, Mauritius, and Cape Town taken in the 1850s.<ref name=blnawab>{{cite web|last1=Library|first1=British|title=Palace of the Nawaub of the Carnatic, Madras|url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/p/019pho000000248u00027000.html|website=bl.uk/|accessdate=22 August 2014}}</ref>

==History== There is very little information available about Frederick Fiebig. He was of German origin and became a lithographer in Calcutta in the 1840s. With the advent of photography in British India, Fiebig began producing hand-coloured prints of photographs captured using the calotype process. His images of Calcutta and Madras<ref name="blnawab" /> are some of the earliest views of these cities. Fiebig also travelled to Madras, Ceylon, Mauritius, and Cape Town in South Africa, meticulously cataloguing the monuments and people around him.<ref name="Raman">{{cite news |last1=Raman |first1=A |date=21 March 2011 |title=Frederick Fiebig and Madras photos |url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/article458341.ece |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826114749/http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/article458341.ece |archive-date=August 26, 2014 |accessdate=24 August 2014 |work=The New Indian Express}}</ref> In doing so, he did not limit himself to views of British buildings, but also photographed scenes of other counties' colonial settlements, as well as indigenous neighbourhoods, mosques and temples.<ref>{{citation|access-date=2025-07-13 |author=John Falconer |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-7123-4746-4 |pages=12, 42, 105 |publisher=London : British Library and Howard and Jane Ricketts Collection |title=India : pioneering photographers, 1850-1900 |url=http://archive.org/details/indiapioneeringp0000falc}}</ref>

Only one contemporary source exists about his work, referring to his stay in Madras in early 1852 (‘Photography in Madras,’ ''Illustrated Indian Journal of Arts'', Madras, part 4, February 1852, p. 32) According to this article, he also took photographs of Singapore, Burma, and China, but no examples of such images have been found.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |author=John Falconer |chapter=Frederick Fiebig |title=Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography |date=2008 |publisher=Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-0-415-97235-2 |editor-last=Hannavy |editor-first=John |location=New York |pages=529}}</ref>

The earliest surviving photographs of 19th-century Ceylon are considered those taken by Fiebig. Following a trip to southern India in 1852, he took photos of major cities and scenery on the island. His hand-coloured salted paper prints suggest that he photographed in Galle (then the principal port), Colombo and Kandy. His views of architectural monuments, landscapes, coffee estates and portraits of 'native types' have become common themes for subsequent generations of commercial photographers on the island.<ref>{{Cite book |author=John Falconer |chapter=Ceylon |title=Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography |date=2008 |publisher=Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-0-415-97235-2 |editor-last=Hannavy |editor-first=John |location=New York |pages=286}}</ref>

In 1856, the East India Company acquired some 500 of his photographs, which are now part of the Oriental and India Office collections at the British Library.<ref>British Library, India Office Records, Miscellaneous Letters Received, vol. 193, 1856</ref>

== Reception == Among other exhibits, Fiebig's photograph of a Juggernaut procession float in Madras was shown in the 2004/2005 exhibition ''In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Arts of India, Selections from the Polsky Collections and The Metropolitan Museum of Art''.<ref>{{Citation |last=Fiebig |first=Frederick |title=Juggernaut Car, Madras |date=1850s |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/266095 |access-date=2025-07-13 |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref> The MET museum also owns a photograph of the Gunpowder Agent's Bungalow at Ichapore, India, taken by Fiebig in 1858.<ref>https://timelessmoon.getarchive.net/media/gunpowder-agents-bungalow-ishapoor-93552f</ref> Further, lithographs and photographs from his work have been sold by auction houses such as Bonhams and Christie's.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2025-07-13 |date=1999 |language=en |publisher=Christie's |title=Frederick Fiebig |url=https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-1544181?}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=2025-07-13 |language=en |title=Bonhams : FIEBIG (FREDERICK) View of a park in Calcutta, c.1850 |url=https://www.bonhams.com/auction/16203/lot/17/fiebig-frederick-view-of-a-park-in-calcutta-c1850/}}</ref>

==Gallery== {{Gallery |title=Hand-coloured photographs by Frederick Fiebig, 1851 |File:Fiebig Danish gate Serampore.jpg |Gateway to the former Danish settlement of Serampore on the Hooghly River north of Calcutta |File:Fiebig Chandernagore street.jpg |A street in Chandernagore, French India |File:Frederick_Fiebig_—_Black_Town,_Madras,_1851.jpg |A so-called ''Black Town ''in Madras |File:St John's Cathedral Calcutta by Frederick Fiebig 1851.jpg |St John's Cathedral, Calcutta }}

== References== {{reflist}}

== Further reading ==

* {{citation|date=2024 |editor=Luis J. Gordo Peláez, Paul B. Niell |isbn=978-1-032-43111-6 |language=en |location=London; New York |pages=67-68 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |series=Routledge research in architectural history |title=Architecture and extraction in the Atlantic world, 1500-1850}} * {{citation|author=Benita Stambler |date=2013-11-01 |doi=10.1215/215820251_4-1-105 |issn=2158-2025 |issue=1 |language=en |periodical=Trans Asia Photography |title=Maintaining the Photographic Legacy of Ceylon |volume=4|doi-access=free }} * {{citation|author=Anantanarayanan Raman |date=2011 |issn=0011-3891 |issue=6 |jstor=24078675 |language=en |pages=800–802 |periodical=Current Science |title=Photography and photomicrography in 19th century Madras |volume=101}} * Arnold, David. ''The Tropics and the Traveling Gaze: India, Landscape, and Science, 1800–1856.'' Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006. * Falconer, John. ''Photography in Nineteenth Century India.'' London: The Alkazi Collection of Photography, 2001. * Falconer, John. ''A Biographical Dictionary of 19th Century Photographers in South and South-East Asia.'' London: British Library, 1991.

== External links == {{commons category}} * [https://wiki.phalkefactory.net/index.php?title=History_of_photography_in_India History of Photography in India] * [https://rarebooksocietyofindia.org/grid-layout.php?q=Fiebig Collection of images by Fiebig] at Rare Books Society of India * [https://timelessmoon.getarchive.net/topics/frederick+fiebig Some of Fiebig's photographs in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Library.]

Category:19th-century German photographers Category:Photography in India