Gezigt van Punto de Galle. / Vue de Point de Galle

Title

Gezigt van Punto de Galle. / Vue de Point de Galle

Description

View shows the city of Galle with sailing ships in front of Sri Lanka.

ca. 1745

Artist

Schley, van der (1715-1779)

Jakob van der Schley (1715 -1779) was a Dutch draughtsman and engraver. He studied under Bernard Picart (1673-1733) whose style he subsequently copied. His main interests were engraving portraits and producing illustrations for "La Vie de Marianne" by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763), published in The Hague between 1735 and 1747. He also engraved the frontispieces for a 15-volume edition of the complete works of Pierre de Brantôme (1540-1614), "Oeuvres du seigneur de Brantôme", published in The Hague in 1740. Most of the plates in the Hague edition of Prévost's "Histoire générale des voyages" are signed by van der Schley.

Historical Description

Galle is a major city in Sri Lanka, it was known as Gimhathiththa before the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, when it was the main port on the island. Galle had been a prominent seaport long before western rule in the country. Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Malays, Indians, and Chinese were doing business through Galle port. In 1640, the Portuguese were forced to surrender to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch built the present fort in 1663. They built a fortified solid granite wall and three bastions, known as -Sun,Moon and Star-.After the British took over the country from the Dutch in 1796, the British preserved the fort unchanged and used it as the administrative centre of the district.