Museum catalogue: Polar Art Collection

The Greenland or Whale Fishery; La Pecherie de Greenland, ou de la Baleine


Accession no.:	Y: 2009/12/3
Title:	The Greenland or Whale Fishery; La Pecherie de Greenland, ou de la Baleine
Description:	Print, ca 1820. Tho. Baston pinxt, E. Kirkall fecit. Printed for Carrington Bowles, next the Chapter House in St Paul's Churchyard, London.
Medium:	Print
Artist:	\|Baston, Thomas\|\|Kirkall, E.\|
Note:	Carrington Bowles (1724-1792), according to Clayton, took over his uncle's shop in St Paul's Churchyard after the death of Thomas Bowles (the third?) in 1762. As these dates indicate, prints must have been re-issues, post 1762, perhaps as late as about 1830, judging from the paper they are printed on. Since Kirkall is confidently believed to have died in 1742, the inscriptions Tho.Baston pinxt and E.Kirkall fecit raise queries. Baston is not known to have painted any pictures, and one may wonder whether Kirkall ever engraved line prints in this manner. The "Greenland" indicated in the title is not Greenland as we know it, but refers to Spitsbergen.