A View of Woolwich
John Boydell, London: 1750

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A View of Woolwich
Detail
John Boydell (1719-1804) (artist and engraver)
A View of Woolwich
John Boydell, London: 1750
Hand-colored engraving
9.25 x 16.25 inches, image
10.25 x 16.75 inches, platemark
12.75 x 19.5 inches, overall
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Peaceful harbor scene of Woolwich, on the south side of the Thames River, which was then part of Kent but is now part of southeastern London.  Clipper ships and a variety of small sailboats and rowboats are in the water, some docked, others moving, and workers are on the steps of the boat launch on the right, apparently unloading a rowboat.  Numbered lower right below image, “No. 12.”

This view is in the general format and size of a vue d’optique -- a perspective view produced as a hand-colored print generally intended to be viewed through a convex lens.  Vues d’optique often were rendered in high-key color and dramatic linear perspective which enhanced the illusion of three-dimensionality when viewed through the lens, making it seem like the viewer was really there.  Thus, they served as a form of visual entertainment.  The viewing devices were known variously as zograscopes, optiques, optical machines and peepshows.  According to the Getty Research Institute, street performers would set up viewing boxes with a series of prints giving a pictorial tour of famous landmarks, dramatic events and foreign lands.  Vues d’optique were also purchased by Grand Tour travelers as souvenirs to be viewed at home as a parlor activity.  To cater to this broad audience, the prints often had titles and descriptions in two or more languages.  Because the images are reversed in viewing devices, the main titles on some vues d’optique are backwards.  Vues d’optique were also hung on walls as decoration.

John Boydell was a successful and influential printseller and engraver. Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery is credited with changing the course of English painting by creating a market for historical and literary works.  He also encouraged the development of engraving in England with, among other things, his prints illustrating scenes from Shakespearean plays.  By the late 1760s he was a successful entrepreneur in print publishing and retailing, successfully marketing his prints across the continent; he also became Lord Mayor of London in 1790.  In 1773, his nephew Josiah Boydell (1752-1817) became his business partner and later his successor, trading as J. & J. Boydell.

Full publication information: “Publish’d according to Act of Parliament by J. Boydell Engraver 1750.”

References:

“Emperor’s Palace in Beijing.” Devices of Wonder.  J. Paul Getty Trust. 2001.  http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/devices/html/homepage.html (30 September 2002).

Maxted, Ian. "The London book trades 1775-1800: a preliminary checklist of members." Exeter Working Papers in British Book Trade History. 2001. http://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2007/01/london-1775-1800-b.html (12 June 2009).

Rusche, Harry.  “Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery.”  Department of English, EmoryUniversity.  1998.  http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/Boydell.html.