Maritime Art, Military, French, Sailing Galley, de Passebon, Antique Print, France, c. 1690

Henri Sbonski de Passebon (1637-1705) (after)
Claude Randon (artist and engraver)
Galere a la voille portant l’Estendart de chef d’Escadre
[Sailing Galley carrying l’Estendart of the leader of the Fleet]
from Les Plans de Plusieurs Bâtiments de Mer avec leurs proportions
[Plans of Several Naval Structures with their proportions]
Marseille, France: c. 1690
Copperplate engraving
16.25 x 21.75 inches, image
17 x 22 inches, plate mark
19.5 x 24.25 inches, overall
$800

Finely executed maritime engraving of a French galley under full sail in the Mediterranean, with the shoreline in the distance. Smoke billows from a cooking stove behind a smaller boat — each inside the large galley towards the middle. This was printed as part of a series of 17 folio copperplate engravings of French and Turkish vessels active in the Mediterranean executed by Claude Randon after drawings by French naval officer Henri Sbonski de Passebon. The prints were first published as Plan de Plusieurs Bâtimens de Mer avec leurs proportions in Marseille, the port where de Passebon was stationed as a Lieutenant in the French Navy with the galley fleet in the late 17th century during Louis XIV’s reign. The work was commissioned by and dedicated to Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Lieutenant General of the French Army and Navy in the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean). A later version of de Passebon’s set of plates was engraved and printed by Pieter Mortier in Amsterdam.

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