La Sortie du Port (from La Vie d’un Navire) after Hippolyte Garneray, engraved by A. Durand

La Sortie du Port (from La Vie d’un Navire) — after Hippolyte Garneray, engraved by A. Durand, hand-colored aquatint, Paris, c.1844 (Goupil & Vibert)

A powerful ship-of-the-line gets under way from a busy harbor. Crewmen swarm the yards to loose sail, a pilot boat and ship’s boats attend alongside, and figures on the quay watch the departure. Merchantmen and smaller craft animate the roadstead while a headland and distant shipping close the horizon. Where Le jour de fête shows ceremonial display, La Sortie du Port captures the working rhythm of the fleet: anchors coming up, canvas filling, rigging alive with activity, and the layered bustle of waterfront life.

The setting might represent Toulon’s Tour Royal or perhaps Marseille’s Fort Saint Jean, or might be a composition from the imagination of the artist. The large vessel in the foreground flies the Stars and Stripes at the stern—almost certainly to signal international commerce and traffic rather than a portrait of a particular American warship. Garneray’s prints (and those published by Goupil for export) often sprinkle different national flags to broaden appeal and emphasize the cosmopolitan life of major ports. He also produced multiple American port views in aquatint during these years, so the U.S. ensign was very much in his visual vocabulary. A paddle steamer smoking up-harbor ads a nice 1830s–40s touch to the scene, heralding the arrival of new forms of transport.

Context
This plate belongs to the four-scene series La Vie d’un Navire (“The Life of a Ship”), generally comprising: La Sortie du Port, Le jour de fête, La Tempête, and Le Naufrage. Designed after the marine painter Hippolyte Garneray and aquatinted by A. Durand, the series was issued in large format by Goupil & Vibert (often with a parallel London imprint). Impressions are commonly found with delicate contemporary hand-color, which enhances signal flags, uniforms, and the tonal atmosphere.

About the artist
Hippolyte Jean-Baptiste Garneray (Paris 1787–1858) was a French painter and engraver from a notable dynasty of artists—the son of painter Jean-François Garneray and the younger brother of marine painter Ambroise-Louis Garneray. Hippolyte worked across history painting, marine subjects, landscapes, engraving, and watercolor, and his designs were widely circulated in prints by major Paris publishers such as Goupil.