Sir Henry John William Bentinck (1796-1878)

Photograph of Sir Henry Bentinck standing facing slightly right with his right hand partly tucked into his jacket and his left arm resting on the table beside him. The table is covered by a cloth and has a number of items on top of it, one of which is probably a feathered bicorn hat. He is wearing military uniform and has a sword by his side.

Bentinck commanded the 28th Regiment of Foot during the Crimean War and was shot in the arm at the Battle of Inkerman.

Bentinck's portrait was almost certainly taken in London on 18 January 1855, before Fenton travelled out to the Crimea. He took the photograph for the artist Frederick Cruikshank to copy for a watercolour (which is also in the Royal Collection, RCIN 913410). The date of the sitting is confirmed by a letter written by Cruikshank to the publisher Dominic Colnaghi who stated that Bentinck was sitting for Fenton. He wrote, 'I believe that something very excellent may be done in this way. Photography being a means to an end, sparing the sitter' (quoted in D Millar, The Victorian Watercolours and Drawings in the collection of Her Majesty The Queen, Vol.1, 1995, p.247).