Vue de Sandy-Bay.

Title

Vue de Sandy-Bay.

Description

Decorative view of Sandy Bay in Ascension. From -Voyage de L'Astrolabe- after de Sainson. Very rare colored copy! From- Voyage de L'Astrolabe- after de Sainson. Erste Ausgabe dieser ausgezeichneten China-Collé-Lithographie auf Indien-Papier von Green Mountain, dem höchsten Punkt der Insel Ascension. Lithographie von Louis de Sainson Künstler an Bord der berühmten Dumon't D'Urville Reise der wissenschaftlichen Entdeckung und Erforschung. Very rare colored copy!

ca. 1834

Artist

Lemercier / Levasseur (1838-1875)

Huge Parisian firm of lithographic printers founded by Joseph Rose Lemercier (1803-1887), who began as the foreman for Langlumé in 1825. Working on his own account from 1827, 1829-36 in partnership with Bénard association formed in 1837 according to IFF catalogue for Joseph Lemercier. The firm was still active in 1841.

Historical Description

Ascension, a large tropical island in the South Atlantic between Africa and South America. The originally uninhabited island was probably first discovered by João da Nova in May 1501. According to tradition, he gave it the name Ascensão because he is said to have sighted it on the Ascension of Christ (Ascensão de Jesus in Portuguese). However, this common account of the discovery and naming of the island has since been challenged, as the island already appears on the Cantino world map of 1502 as ilha ... ascenssani in the correct location. In 1701, the explorer William Dampier ran aground with his ship Roebuck in front of the island and held out with his crew for six weeks before an East India sailor picked up the castaways. Thus, the privateer and his crew are considered the first settlers on the island. When Napoleon Bonaparte was banished in 1815 to the island of St. Helena, about 700 nautical miles to the southeast, the Royal Navy occupied Ascension to make possible attempts at liberation by the French more difficult. The island was developed into a fortress. In November 1816, Christian Ignatius Latrobe, an inspector of the Moravian Church, visited the islands of St. Helena and Ascension on his return trip from the South African Moravian colony of Gnadenthal. Latrobe was looking for further settlement sites for the Herrnhut mission and was initially impressed by the beauty of Ascension Island. In 1836, Charles Darwin, coming from St. Helena, landed on Ascension aboard HMS Beagle. He was so enthralled by the island and its appearance that he, along with British biologist and botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, began to develop a plan to revitalize this barren island. A kind of Garden of Eden or rather "Island of Eden" was to be created.