Description
No. 35 in Fanshawe's Pacific album, 1849 - 52. Captioned by the artist on the album page below the image, as title. Having returned to Valparaiso from Samoa in the 'Daphne' on 22 December 1849, Fanshawe remained there for a month, partly to convalesce from the dysentery that had struck him in October. For two weeks, while his cabin was being repainted, he had the use of the house of Rear-Admiral Phipps Hornby (Pacific C-in-C), who was absent at Callao. 'I rode nearly every day, and found some pleasant rides under the pilotage of Dr Aneran, surgeon of the English hospital..I went for two or three days to Quillota, forty miles from Valparaiso, where there is a good inn. This town stands in a very fine plain, well watered and surrounded by mountains, except towards the sea. There are some very fine estates (haciendas) in it. The land is prinicipally divided into "portreros" or large grazing grounds for cattle and horses, who graze on the rich level plains...' (Fanshawe [1904], p.250). This drawing of gauchos - dressed in ponchos, riding boots and spurs - presumably derives from this excursion to Quillota. From an album of watercolours of Madeira, Brazil, the Falkland and Pacific Islands, Chile, Panama, Mexico, Vancouver, and California. It covers Fanshawe's commission in command of HMS 'Daphne' 1848-52, on the Pacific station based at Valparaiso, Chile, under Rear-Admiral Phipps Hornby in the 84-gun 'Asia'. The earliest dated drawing is of Madeira, 1 January 1849 on the way out, and the last of Cape Horn on the return, 28 May 1852. For further details, see collection online record.
Image Licence
CC BY-NC-ND
Image Credit
© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Location
Concón, Chile
Country
Chile
Medium
Watercolour
Tags
Category
People & Society
