The Old Print Shop

Peche de la Baleine. Whale-Fishery.

  • ARTIST: Louis Ambroise Garneray

  • PUBLISHER: Published in Paris, Publie par Rittner et Goupil, 9 Boulevard Montmartre.

  • MEDIUM: Aquatint and engraving.

    DATE: 1835.

  • EDITION SIZE: Image size 22 1/4 x 31 3/4 inches (56.4 x 80.5 cm).

  • DESCRIPTION: One of the finest of all printed Whaling prints.<br><br> This print is mentioned in Herman Melville's great work "Moby Dick." "But, taken for all in all, by far the finest, though in some details not the most correct, presentations of whales and whaling scenes to be anywhere found, are two large French engravings, well executed, and taken from paintings by one Garnery. Respectively, they represent attacks on the Sperm and Right Whale. . . Who Garnery [sic] the painter is, or was, I know not. But my life for it he was either practically conversant with his subject, or else marvelously tutored by some experienced whaleman."

  • ADDITIONAL INFO:

  • CONDITION: Fair to good condition, backed on paper. Title appears to have been reworked and rubbed. Repaired tear in right margin.

  • REFERENCE: Brewington, Kendall Whaling Museum, Prints #196.