Description:
Framed hand-colored mezzotint engraving with captions in English and French: "A View of the Taking of Quebec September 13th, 1759. / Shewing the manner of debarking the English Forces & of the resolute scrambling of the light Infantry up a Woody Precipice to dislodge the Captains post, which defended a small entrenched path, through which the Troops were to pass. Also a view of the signal Victory obtained over the French regulars, Canadians and Indians which produced the surrender of Quebec.” and published by "Carington Bowles in St. Pauls Church Yard London." This mezzotint is based on a sketch of the attack on Quebec by Hervey Smythe (1743-1811), an army officer and aide-de-camp to Major-General James Wolfe (1727-1759) in Quebec and topographical painter. Major-General James Wolfe was placed in command of the British forces in the expedition against Quebec in 1759. His troops successfully attacked Quebec on Sept. 13, 1759; the French surrendered five days later, ensuring the English control of Canada. However, the Battle of Quebec took the lives of Wolfe, the French commander in chief, Montcalm, and 1500 French soldiers. Badly wounded in the same battle that killed Wolfe, Smythe returned to England in 1759 taking a number of sketches he had made of places in the Gulf of St Lawrence and of battles during the siege of Quebec. Smythe’s sketch of this view of the attack on Quebec was engraved and published at London about 1760, and captioned: "A View of the Landing Place above the Town of Quebec, Describing the Assault of the Enemy Post on the Banks of the River St. Laurence, with a Distant View of the Action between the British and French Armys, on the Hauteurs D’Abraham, Sepbr. 13th, 1759." It became a popular print at the time, and was published by several print sellers including Carington Bowles, Bowles & Carver, Robert Wilkinson, and Robert Sayer. Smythe supposedly made a profile drawing of Wolfe shortly after the general’s death, and in London he painted profiles of Wolfe, which were reproduced in small mezzotints by the well-known engraver Charles Spooner. Smythe is chiefly remembered, however, for "Six elegant views of the most remarkable places in the river and gulph of St Lawrence," engraved by various hands and published in London by Thomas Jefferys in 1760 with a dedication to William Pitt, secretary of state for the Southern Department. Representing the third generation of publishers, print and map sellers, Carington Bowles (1724-1793) worked with his father, John Bowles (1701-1779), in Cornhill until 1764 when he took over the firm vacated by his uncle, Thomas Bowles (1695-1767) in St. Paul's Churchyard, which he lead for thirty years until his death in 1793 when his son Henry continued under the partnership of Bowles & Carver.
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