Mannheim on the Rhine, Antique Steel Engraving after Birket Foster, circa 1875

About this sheet

A lively river view of Mannheim seen from a stone quay. In the foreground a moored sailing barge is crowded with boatmen, barrels and bales, its tall mast and rigging cutting across the sky, while a man on a ladder works at an iron railing and two horses wade in the shallows at right beside a timber building.

Across the broad water the town spreads along the far bank, dominated by a great domed church with twin towers rising above the trees, with a steamboat, small rowing boats and a large building at the waterfront to the left. Tall poplars and a sky of drifting cloud complete a busy, open composition.

Mannheim stands where the Neckar meets the Rhine, laid out as a planned baroque city, and its river trade is the real subject here. The plate is lettered "MANNHEIM." and credits B. Foster (Birket Foster, the Victorian landscape painter and illustrator) as artist and E.I. Roberts as engraver. The imprint is that of William Mackenzie of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the publisher who issued it.

This is a steel engraving, finely and evenly worked. The rigging is drawn with hairline precision, the water rendered in long horizontal strokes with soft reflections, and the clouds in light, open hatching that keeps the sky bright.

Good company for other river and harbor subjects, it would suit a study or a kitchen, framed in a simple wood molding.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.