Code: 10183
Dimensions:
BRESSE active in France c. 1783-84
Poisson Aérostatique enlevé à Plazentia ville d’Espagne…
Etching with hand coloring; 10 March 1784. Inventaire du fonds français, Graveurs du Dix-huitième Siècle, vol III, p. 351, no. 2. The Inventaire notes three aerostatic etchings by Bresse, his only cited works.
Ballooning and Aeronautical Prints and Drawings, the property of Col. R. L. Preston, C.B.E., auction catalogue, Sotheby & Co., London, 20 March 1962, lot 204, that impression also hand colored.
A very good impression on unfaded blue-gray paper with extensive contemporary hand coloring; in very good, fresh condition, the colors very bright, very slightly rubbed at the upper edge of the image, unobtrusive handling creases, the edges of the margins cut diagonally at the corners and once folded back.
Of very considerable rarity, this etching apparently records the ascent of a balloon in the form of a fish with a saw-bill rowed through the air said to have taken place near Placencia, Spain on March 10 1784. It seems more likely however, that the scene constitutes a caricature of the efforts of the Spanish Minister of Commerce to ban Spanish trade with the United States. Patinho and his two fellow passengers represent the impossibility of regulating trade between Spain and the United States in the 1780s. Such trade disputes arose as a result of Spanish suspicions as to American intentions regarding its Southeastern American colonial interests.
Extravagant fantasy or caricature, our etching demonstrates the late 18th century fascination with the possibilities of air travel. An elegant company on the seashore watches a fantastic balloon in the shape of a fish being rowed through the air by three men wearing feathered caps.
269 x 400 mm 10 5/8 x 15 ¾ inches
Sheet: 326 x 495 mm 12 7/8 x 19 ½ inches
