1768 Hervey Smyth View of Quebec City, Canada

Seminal view of Quebec shortly after the French and Indian War.

This is the rare 1868 Hervey Smyth view of Quebec City, published in 1768. It is one of the earliest obtainable views of Quebec City, offering a look at the city shortly after the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763). The view was published for the Scenographia Americana, one of the most influential and monumental pre-Revolutionary graphic works on North America.

A Closer Look

The view looks on Quebec from Point Peres Pointe de Peres), southeast of the city, across the Saint Lawrence River. The Citadelle de Québec appears at the high point on the left, emphasizing the city's defensibility. The Basse-Ville or 'Lower Town' sprawls at the base of the cliffs, facing a busy waterfront. Watercraft ply the waters of the Saint Lawrence.

Quebec at this time was one of the largest and most important cities in North America and the center of regional British power. Despite the transition from French to British rule at the end of the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763), the city managed to harmoniously balance French and British influences. The city served as a military fortress and as a collection point for Canadian furs and lumber, which were then shipped to markets elsewhere in the Americas and Europe.

Scenographia Americana

The view is part of a series of 28 images of American subjects known collectively as Scenographia Americana, a joint project involving many of London's top printers, engravers, and publishers. The individual drawings, including cities, seascapes, and natural scenes, were generally drawn on the spot, by military artists and surveyors, most serving in the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763) - like Pownall. The full Scenographia Americana is an object of legendary rarity, with only a single example (Christies, 2022) appearing at auction in the last 30 years.

The publication of the Scenographia marked a sea change in the European sensibilities and perspectives on America. While America's dense forests, rugged mountains, endless plains, and enormous rivers were understood from a strategic and commercial perspective, little weight was given to their stunning visual appeal. While many celebrate the Hudson River School of the 19th century as bringing America's natural beauty to the forefront of the art world, it was, in fact, recognized much earlier. Well-educated French and British officers, engineers, and nobility sent to fight the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763) were rightly sensitive to the beauty around them and recorded it with passion, both visually and in their written accounts. Scenographia consolidated these impressions into a series of compelling and evocative engraved images.

Publication History and Census

The view was issued jointly in 1868 by London's premier map and print publishers: John Bowles, Carington Bowles, Thomas Jefferys, Robert Sayer, and Henry Parker. It is a composite of several sketches compiled on the spot by Hervey Smyth, aide-de-camp to General James Wolfe. Rare outside of long-standing institutional holdings. Of the full Scenographia Americana, we are aware of only six surviving examples, four in the U.S., another in England, and a sixth in private hands. All views from the Scenographia are exceedingly rare to the market.

Cartographers

Hervey Smyth (1734 - 1811), also written Smythe, was a British army officer and a topographical painter active in the second half of the 18th century. Smythe is best known for his French and Indian War (1754 - 1763) service as aide-de-camp to General James Wolfe, particularly the 1758 Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign. His likeness was captured in Benjamin West's famous painting, The Death of General Wolfe, wherein Smyth is holding the general's hand. As a topographical painter, he completed several scenes during his service in America that were later engraved and published in the great Scenographia Americana.   Further Details...

Peter Paul Benazech (c. 1730 - 1783) was a British painter and engraver. He was born in England, but his date of birth is disputed in biographies. It must have been about 1730, given that he became an apprentice to the French landscape engraver François Vivarès (1709 - 1780) in 1746. Later, he and Vivarès partnered and produced work in both London and Paris. His son, Charles Benazech (1767 - 1794), was also a historical artist. Benazech worked with drypoint, etching, and burin. He was primarily an interpreter, specializing in the reproduction of landscapes by masters of the previous century and the Rococo period, but also contemporary maps and topographies. However, his work also included genre scenes and ancient ruins of his own invention, inspired by Rome. His name, Benazech, suggests family origins in the Tarn region of France.   Further Details...

The Bowles Family (fl. c. 1714 - 1832) were publishers and map sellers active in London from c. 1714 to c. 1832. The firm, under Thomas Bowles (fl. 1714 - 1763), John Bowles (1701 - 1779), Carrington Bowles (1724 - 1793), and as Bowles and Carver (fl. 1794 - 1832), produced a massive corpus of work that included numerous atlases, pocket maps, and wall maps. The Bowles publishing tradition was kept alive for four generations, starting with Thomas Bowles, a print engraver active in the late 17th century. His son, Thomas Bowles II, produced the firm's first maps at St. Paul's Churchyard, London. Thomas's brother, John Bowles (a.k.a. 'Old John Bowles' or 'Black Horse Bowles'), was also an active publisher established at no. 13 Cornhill. He is credited as one of the first publishers of William Hogarth's works. There, John's son, Carrington Bowles, was introduced to the trade. Carrington took over the Cornhill bookshop and eventually merged it with his uncle's shop in St. Paul's Churchyard. On Carrington's 1793 death, the business was passed to his son Henry Carrington Bowles (1763 - 1830), who partnered with his father's former apprentice Samuel Carver (1756 - 1841), renaming the firm 'Bowles and Carver'. Under this imprint, the firm continued to publish maps and atlases until 1832. Henry Carrington Bowles died in 1830, but Samuel Carver, himself in advanced years and poor health, kept it going for another 2 years before closing the business.   Further Details...

Robert Sayer (1725 - January 29, 1794) was an important English map publisher and engraver active from the mid to late 18th century. Sayer was born in Sunderland, England, in 1725. He may have clerked as a young man with the Bank of England, but this is unclear. His brother, James Sayer, married Mary Overton, daughter-in-law of John Overton and widow of Philip Overton. Sayer initially worked under Mary Overton, but by December of 1748 was managing the Overton enterprise and gradually took it over, transitioning the plates to his own name. When Thomas Jefferys went bankrupt in 1766, Sayer offered financial assistance to help him stay in business and, in this way, acquired rights to many of the important Jefferys map plates as well as his unpublished research. From about 1774, he began publishing with his apprentice, John Bennett (fl. 1770 - 1784), as Sayer and Bennett, but the partnership was not formalized until 1777. Bennett retired in 1784 following a mental collapse and the imprint reverted to Robert Sayer. From 1790, Sayer added Robert Laurie and James Whittle to his enterprise, renaming the firm Robert Sayer and Company. Ultimately, Laurie and Whittle partnered to take over his firm. Sayer retired to Bath, where, after a long illness, he died. During most of his career, Sayer was based at 53 Fleet Street, London. His work is particularly significant for its publication of many British maps relating to the American Revolutionary War. Unlike many map makers of his generation, Sayer was a good businessman and left a personal fortune and great estate to his son, James Sayer, who never worked in the publishing business.   Further Details...

Thomas Jefferys (1695 - November 20, 1771) was one of the most prominent and prolific map publishers and engravers of his day. Jefferys was born in Birmingham and was apprenticed to the engraver Emmanuel Bowen in 1735. Later, in the 1740s he engraved several maps for the popular periodical Gentleman's Magazine. Around 1740 Jefferys was finally able to go into business for himself and in 1746 received an appointment as 'Geographer to Fredrick, Prince of Wales,' which shortly after translated to the position of 'Royal Cartographer to King George III.' Jefferys initially specialized in compiling and re-engraving the works of earlier cartographers into more coherent cartographic wholes. Later, while not salaried position, Jefferys' appointment as 'Royal Cartographer' guaranteed preferential access to the most up to date cartographic material available, allowing him to produce new and updated charts of exceptional accuracy. He his best known for his maps of the Americas, particularly the posthumously published 1775 American Atlas, which included some of the finest and most important late colonial era maps of America ever made. Despite his prolific publishing history, royal appointments, and international publishing fame, Jefferys lived most of his life in dire economic straits. He was bailed out of bankruptcy by Robert Sayer during the production of the American Atlas. In the end, Jefferys died suddenly with very little to his name. Nonetheless, his cartographic legacy survived, and even after his death in 1771, many of his important maps continued to be published and republished by Sayer and Bennet, Conrad Lotter, Georges Louis Le Rouge, Laurie and Whittle, and others. Many attribute some of Jefferys best maps to the colorful and criminally inclined Irish cartographic genius Braddock Mead (John Green, c. 1688 - 1757), who is considered the 'secret behind Jefferys.' Jefferys was succeeded by his son, also Thomas, who had little success as a cartographer and eventually partnered with, then sold his stock and plates to William Faden - Jefferys' true heir.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Slight edge wear and mat burn.

References

Cresswell, Donald H., The American Revolution in Drawings and Prints, 357. George Washington Presidential Library, Mount Vernon Repository, Drawer: 122 : L : 4, Section: 4 (Maps). New York Public Library, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, EM4518 / NYPG95-F228. Yale Center for British Art, B2001.2.1536.