LARGE 1823 BEAUTIFULLY HAND-COLORED AQUATINT ENGRAVING OF LORIENT HARBOR IN BRITTANY, FRANCE

GARNERAY, Ambroise-Louis. Vue du Port de Lorient: Prise de l'Avant-Garde ["View of Lorient Harbor"]. Paris: Chez Basset, [1823]. Original aquatint engraving, measuring 18 by 14-1/2 inches; framed, entire piece measures 26 by 20 inches. $1250.

Lovely original hand-colored aquatint engraving, depicting activities in the port of Lorient, from Jouy’s Vues des Côtes de France (1823).

Louis Garneray gained wide repute as the top-ranking marine artist of Restoration France. In 1823, in collaboration with Étienne Jouy (who prepared the text), Garneray painted and engraved a series of 59 coastal scenes, Vues des Côtes de France. His prospect of the port of Lorient is "full of the activities of daily life" (Benezit IV:620), with a sightseeing boat, fishermen at their nets (approached by a wife bringing lunch in a dingy), and a distant clam-digger.

Uniformly toned. A fine impression, beautifully colored.