Artwork from 1850

Artwork from 1850

February 17, 2012

No. 45 in Fanshawe's Pacific album, 1849 - 52. Fold-out panoramic drawing on two joined sheets, the right one stuck down on the album page, which is captioned by the artist below the image, as title. For the circumstances of Fanshawe being on the Mexican Pacific coast in 1850 to collect 'freight' of silver from local mines, see PAI4648. In his 1904 biography his daughter wrote: 'The chief ports for shipping freight were Mazatlan and San Blas (the harbour of Tepic). The principal silver merchants were - at the former place, [Jaca &] Torre; and at Tepic, Barron & Forbes...(pp. 261-62). He was at San Blas, south of Mazatlan, from 6 to 13 August and also went about 30 miles inland to Tepic, which is to the east-south-east, in the direction of the early morning sun in this drawing. The beach and cape of San Blas, which projects out from the coast, are on the left-hand sheet. The masts of a ship appear near the tip of the cape. Referring to this drawing, Fanshawe's daughter continued: 'The last date in Mexico given by E.[dward's] sketches is San Blas, October 11th, and an official letter is dated "Panama, November 5th.'" He was no doubt to deliver his freight there before going on to Valparaiso, and sailed for that port on November 19th. Here he spent the winter...' (p. 263).

Date made

11 October 1850