Description
A lengthy Autograph Letter Signed, to William Stevenson, willing to take Views for the Cambridge Almanack, referring to the low prices allowed for the engraver (mentioning the “miserable” Plate of Caius College), discussing subjects, mentioning Mr Deighton and saying he has not forgotten the drawings for his correspondent. 3 pp. 9 x 7 inches, in good clean condition. London, 14 December 1810. Uncommon. “Constantinople is quite at a stand for the present.” Henry Aston Barker (1774–1856), landscape and panorama painter and exhibitor. He frequently travelled in the course of his work, and in August 1799 left England for Turkey, to make drawings for a panorama of Constantinople. At Palermo, he called on Sir William Hamilton, the English ambassador to the court of Naples, who introduced him to Lord Nelson, who, he wrote, “took me by the hand and said he was indebted to me for keeping up the fame of his victory in the Battle of the Nile for a year longer than it would have lasted in the public estimation” (Barker’s memoranda). The panorama of Constantinople was exhibited in 1802, and the drawings were engraved and published in four plates. In 1801, Barker went to Copenhagen to make drawings for a picture of the battle, and while there he was again received by Nelson. In May 1802, during the Peace of Amiens, he went to Paris and made drawings for a panorama of the city. After this many other panoramas were exhibited, including the Coronation Procession of King George IV.