Home
Français
Introduction
History
Annual Index
Author &
Subject
Credits
Contact
|
Lyttleton's
View of Halifax: Microscopic Cosmos
by Alexandra E. Carter
Pages 1
| 2 | 3
| 4
| 5
Halifax As Seen by Other Artists
Halifax has a distinctive and unique physical appearance which has
made it an inviting subject for a variety of reasons and talents.
The earliest views were intended as visual documents to be sent back
to England. An unmistakable appreciation for attention to detail
is apparent in all these early topographical views. Richard Short's Halifax
from George's Island 1759 (fig. 7) is one of the earliest and
represents, in effect, a telescoped version of Lyttleton's, taken
from a smaller island within the confines of the harbour, George's
Island. The land in the foreground of the Halifax view forms a
pyramidal surface pattern similar to that of McNab's Island in the
Lyttleton work and draws the eye across the apex to the opposite
shore.
The focal point in the 1759 version, however, is not the actual town
which lies to the left of centre, but His Majesty's Dock Yard.
The closer proximity of land masses in Short's work increases the
surface area of the harbour and clearly reveals more information of
navigational concern. The viewer is able to assess at a glance the
available anchorage facilities and degree of protection provided by
the shoreline boundaries. In addition, Short gives information about
the depths of the harbour waters: the passage to the harbour on the
west of the island, on the left in the picture, admits larger ships
while the shallower channel on the east can only accommodate
schooners and smaller craft. He includes two impressive
square-rigged ships to advertise this point. It is understandable
that Short's interpretation of Halifax was expressed in nautical
terms and that his interests were primarily military in nature: he
was purser of H. M. S. Prince of Orange and served during the
siege of Quebec; he looks at Halifax to discover the possibilities
for a defensive bastion.
Petley's Halifax from the Mill at Dartmouth 1834 (fig. 8),
rendered in pen and ink over pencil, is from the Canadiana
Department, Royal Ontario Museum. In this view Halifax is seen from
the shore of its twin settlement, Dartmouth. The harbour is quite
narrow at this point and affords an excellent vista of the eastern
part of the town which begins at the wharves along the water's edge
and gently climbs up the side of the hill crowned by the citadel
fortification. Again, George's Island at the tip of the town
provides a reference point for establishing the orientation of the
scene. The somewhat rough rendering of the windmill on the left of
the picture, as of other architectural elements, contrasts sharply
with Lyttleton's draughtsmanship.
William Bartlett was not a product of the British military system
but rather an ambitious artist interested in the commercial venture
of publishing romantic scenes to sell to the Victorian clientel
hungry for information of distant places. He was commissioned by
George Virtue to prepare sketches for a book which was later
published, Canadian Scenery Illustrated, and this Halifax
from Dartmouth (fig. 9) was no doubt among the first pictures he
produced upon his arrival in 1837.
Bartlett's vantage point in Dartmouth is not far removed from
Petley's position, judging once again by the location of George's
Island in the picture, but the nature of the two works is entirely
different. Bartlett's scene is composed to bring the picturesque
qualities to the fore: the vegetation in the foreground is a foil
for the figures on the right, and then left of centre, intended to
"humanize" the remaining wilderness, the eye of the viewer
jumps to the settlement of repetitious box-houses on the left in
the middle-ground and thence across the water to the city of
Halifax. Church spires and domes lend an air of authenticity, but
are so subordinate to the much more carefully described citadel that
the town becomes a symbol of civilized complacency under the
protection of the British Crown. Lyttleton combines the best
attributes of both Short and Bartlett in his Panoramic View of
Halifax Island.
Landscape Art and Lyttleton's
"View of Halifax"
The question of the extent to which the camera obscura was
employed during Lyttleton's time remains something of a mystery, but
Scharf suggests that one can reasonably assume most artists engaged
in the vast production of voyages pittoresques in the eighteenth-nineteenth century did make use of
it. (23) The degree of
accuracy obtained by use of this mechanical device would have
appealed naturally to the military topographers. Whether it was
actually used in North American locales like Chebucto Harbour,
familiarity with it may have tended to limit the artist's range of
vision. (24)
At the turn of the century an Edinburgh artist, Robert Baker,
conceived the idea of producing a full 360 degrees view as seen by
the eye from a single vantage point in an uninterrupted panoramic
sweep, by joining a series of roughly eight consecutive camera
obscura scenes. (25) It is interesting to speculate whether Lyttleton
was influenced by this novel and far reaching idea when he
composed his watercolour of Halifax as it has a distinctive
panoramic quality and far exceeds the limit of the vista presented
in the 1853 view.
In actual physical size Lyttelton's work is again the largest,
measuring 31.9 x 76.8 cm (12-9/16 x 30-1/4 in.), and is a single
sheet of paper. The fact that these dimensions greatly exceed
those of the average water colour sketch raises questions about the
sources of Lyttleton's paper. Clearly he intended to convey this
wide expanse with physical drama and was at pains to obtain paper of
suitable dimensions to do so.
As a result of the tremendous popularity of painting in watercolour,
a great number of societies were formed for the purpose of
encouraging the art and holding public exhibitions. Lyttleton would
have had many opportunities to view the works of contemporary
watercolour artists in England if he followed the well-established
Haligonian custom of taking frequent visits to Britain on the
regularly scheduled Cunard ships. A daguerreotype was taken of
Lyttleton and his wife on one such trip in 1872. (26)
Yet there seems to be no resemblance between Lyttleton's work and
that of any of his contemporaries which he might have seen
exhibited in England. Much earlier, Thomas Girtin had portrayed
English landscapes in wide perspectives with a sweeping treatment
of the foreground leading the eye across untrammeled spaces.
Girtin's compositional arrangement, which places attention and
contemplation in the far distance, is comparable to our Panoramic
View of Halifax. On the other hand, the detailed attention given
to English sky formations by Girtin and artists of the intervening
period, as Constable and Turner, did not exercise the same
fascination for Lyttleton.
The one artist to whom Lyttleton bears closest resemblance
stylistically is his contemporary Edward Lear (1812-1888). He is
best remembered for his Nonsense poems for children, but he referred to himself as "landscape artist" and many books
of his views were published including: Journal of a Landscape
Artist in Corscia (1872); Views in Rome and its Environs (1841);
Illustrated Excursions in Italy,
2 vols (1846).
Next Page | 1856 Corfu
1 | 2 | 3
| 4
| 5
Top of this page
Home
| Français | Introduction
| History
Annual
Index | Author
& Subject | Credits | Contact
This digital collection
was produced under contract to Canada's Digital Collections program,
Industry Canada.
"Digital
Collections Program, Copyright
© National Gallery of
Canada 2001"
|