View Of Saint Malo Taken From Dinard Attributed To Ambroise-louis Garneray (1783-1857)

The Corsair City will never cease to fascinate artists. Its fame earned it a series of representations from the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, which our work is part of. In comparison, we can cite the engraving by Pierre Ozanne (1728-1811) "The Port of Saint Malo seen in front of Saint Servan in front of the Eperon" whose drawing has disappeared. Or again, "The view of Saint Malo taken from the cove of Sablons in Servan" painted in 1798 by Jean-François Hue (1751-1823) preserved at the Musée de la Marine. But which artist knows the sea and Saint Malo better than Ambroise-Louis Garneray, painter, sailor and corsair who sailed alongside Surcouf? Between 1821 and 1830, he visited many ports in France where he made countless sketches that would serve as the basis for engravings or paintings. A series including the representation of Saint Malo is preserved today in the former Hôtel Potocki, currently the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris. His other "View of Saint Malo, taken from Saint Servan" drawn and engraved in aquatint between 1823 and 1832, is also comparable to our work. From the same, we find in the Maison de Chateaubriand, at the Domaine de la Vallée aux Loups in Châtenay-Malabry, a view of the bay of Saint Malo during a storm. The precision with which the artist applied himself to animating several buildings in his composition gives us an interesting testimony to navigation at the beginning of the 19th century on the Emerald Coast. The presence of mixed sail and steam engines driving the rotation of paddle wheels is not insignificant. It reflects the beginnings of this new propulsion. Indeed, steam engines were experimented with from the end of the 18th century and would be in full swing at the end of the 19th century. Paddle wheels gradually disappeared from 1845 to make way for propellers. The English steamer in the center of the composition flying the Red Ensign flag is most likely one of these shuttles that sailed between the Channel Islands and Saint Malo. The spire of the bell tower of Saint Vincent Cathedral does not yet exist since it was erected in 1860.