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Landing of the British Troops in New York, Hand-Colored Optical View, ca. 1776
$775
€690 · £585
Original print, not a reproduction.
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- Date
- 1776
- Sheet size
- 13 × 17.3 in (33 × 44 cm)
- Condition
- Minor age toning and light foxing; some marginal creasing and wear consistent with age; strong coloring and good impression.
- Collection
- Battle scenes
- Era
- 1700 to 1789, Wars of the line
- Stock no.
- f_47270212
The landing of British troops at New York during the American Revolution, an original hand-colored copperplate engraving in the form of a vue d'optique, published in Paris around 1776 by Jacques Chereau at the sign of "aux 2 Colonnes" on the rue St. Jacques. The French title is engraved below the image as "Debarquement des Troupes Angloises a Nouvelle Yorck".
Vues d'optique were perspective views intended to be seen through a zograscope, a lens and mirror viewer that gave the scene depth. For that reason the title is repeated in reversed lettering across the top of the sheet. Here a large square-rigged ship with streaming pennants fills the left foreground, while rowing boats loaded with men in red coats cross the harbor toward the quay. On the shore at the right, a crowd of small figures gathers before a row of tall brick buildings, a domed church and church spires, and smoke drifts across a sky tinted with blue and pink. The coloring is laid in blue, red, ochre and green over the engraved lines.
The British landed on Long Island and Manhattan in the late summer of 1776. Optical views of this kind were produced in Paris for a public eager for news and scenes from distant places, and the city shown here follows the conventions of European harbor views rather than a surveyed likeness.
