BROCKTORFF, Charles Frederick de. Battle of St. Jean d'Acre. 3rd Novr. 1840. [La Valetta, Sold in the Original Malta Bazar by P. Vella & Co. Str. St. Giovanni No. 96, [c. 1840].
Charcoal lithograph of Beirut over across harbour (image sixe 10.9 x 18.9 cm); mounted.
'Charles Frederick de Brocktorff (1775/85 to 1850) [was]an artist of German origin who resided on the island in the first half of the 19th century. Mr Brocktorff had fought in the Napoleonic wars as an infantry officer with the forces of the Electorate of Hanover before moving to England after 1809. When he settled in Malta in circa 1810, he opened an art studio in Valletta where his business prospered and his four artist sons eventually joined to continue to enrich the family enterprise' (timesofmalta.com, Tuesday, December 4, 2007). Prints by Brocktorff are generally very rare, those of the Levant even more so. This battle was fought during the Ottoman-Egyptian War between the joint Austrian, British and Ottoman navy ships against Muhammad Ali's Egyptian forces.
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