The Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope

1736
Gerard van der Gucht after Samuel Scott
Line engraving with hand coloring in watercolor on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Sheet: 19 5/16 × 26 inches (49 × 66 cm) Plate: 17 11/16 × 23 1/2 inches (45 × 59.7 cm) Image: 15 13/16 × 22 1/2 inches (40.1 × 57.1 cm)

This image seems to have been based on a seventeenth-century painting of Table Bay, with the dominant image of Table Mountain in the background, the walled fortification and warehouses on the shore, and Dutch ships in the bay. The salute fired by the British ship in the foreground, signaling its arrival in port, focuses attention on the crucial role played by the settlement in maintaining the company’s commercial endeavors in Asia. The area around Cape Town was first settled by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, when it established a base there to provide its vessels with fresh provisions and water. By the eighteenth century, ships of all nations and companies were taking advantage of Cape Town’s harbor and onshore facilities. 

B1978.43.271
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection