Views of Europe · 19th century
€ 140
One of a kind: this is the sheet in the photographs. Ships from Langweer, the Netherlands.
Good original condition with light age-related toning and minor surface wear consistent with nineteenth-century engraved prints. PNo later coloring or restoration observed.
Antique View of Maria Island, Tasmania – Australian Coastal Engraving, c.1875
Antique engraved view titled “Maria Island, Tasmania,” depicting the rugged coastal landscape of Maria Island in the Tasman Sea, off the east coast of Tasmania, Australia. The composition presents a windswept shoreline with native vegetation in the foreground, opening toward the sea with the mountainous profile of Maria Island rising in the distance. The scene captures the island’s remote and dramatic character, a quality that fascinated nineteenth-century European audiences encountering Australia through illustrated travel works.
Maria Island, known to the Palawa peoples as wukaluwikiwayna, has a long history of Indigenous occupation and later became a significant site in the colonial history of Tasmania, including periods of settlement and penal use. By the nineteenth century, the island was increasingly depicted as a place of striking natural beauty, its coastline and geology lending themselves well to picturesque landscape views such as this.
The engraving is based on an original drawing by Samuel Prout, a well-known British artist celebrated for his landscapes and architectural views. It was engraved by Thomas Heawood, whose finely controlled line work translates Prout’s atmospheric composition into print with subtle tonal variation and depth.
The print was published by Virtue & Co. around 1875. Virtue & Co. were among the most prolific Victorian publishers of illustrated books and prints, particularly travel and topographical subjects, bringing images of distant parts of the British Empire into domestic interiors throughout Britain and Europe.
This view combines topographical accuracy with a romantic sensibility characteristic of late nineteenth-century landscape engraving, making it both a historical document and an elegant decorative work.
An appealing and atmospheric Australian coastal view, well suited to collectors of Tasmanian imagery, nineteenth-century travel prints, and British landscape engraving, as well as to interior settings seeking a refined and contemplative natural scene.
Condition
Good original condition with light age-related toning and minor surface wear consistent with nineteenth-century engraved prints. No later coloring or restoration observed.
Framing tips
This print frames beautifully in a dark walnut or black frame with a wide ivory or soft off-white mat, enhancing the contrast of the engraving and allowing the expansive sky and coastline to breathe. Museum glass is recommended to protect the paper and fine engraved detail.
Technique: Engraving
Maker: Engraved by Thomas Heawood after Samuel Prout, London, published by Virtue & Co., circa 1875
