Hippolyte Garneray: La Vie d’un Navire: Le jour de fête

Hippolyte Garneray (after) — La Vie d’un Navire: Le jour de fête
Hand-colored aquatint, engraved by A. Durand; probably published by Goupil & Vibert, Paris, c.1844.

Description
A three-decker ship-of-the-line lies at anchor, “dressed overall” for a celebration and firing a ceremonial salute. Signal flags and national ensigns stream from every stay and mast—among them the French tricolor, the Union Flag, and the Stars and Stripes—while longboats, workboats, and a crowd on the quay animate the foreground. Other sailing vessels stand off in the haze, with a rocky headland in the distance. This festive plate is the “Le jour de fête” scene from the four-print series La Vie d’un Navire (“The Life of a Ship”), whose companion subjects are commonly listed as La sortie du port, La tempête, and Le naufrage. The series is after Hippolyte Garneray and was aquatinted by A. Durand for the Paris publisher Goupil.

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.