Carlo Bossoli was an Italian-Swiss artist known for his detailed landscapes and battle scenes. The work depicts the city and harbor of Sevastopol, a strategic Black Sea port. Bossoli created a series of lithographs based on his travels through Crimea in the 1840s. The image captures Sevastopol shortly after the Crimean War, which concluded in 1856, and shows the destruction from the siege that lasted from October 1854 to September 1855.