Views of Quebec.

Rare set of six views of Quebec. A fabulous copy of this rare set of views of Quebec, the most 'faithful and systematic depiction of a Canadian city' before the advent of cameras by one of the foremost artists of Canada in the early nineteenth century.

James Pattison Cockburn (1779-1847) served as a military officer, first in Europe during the Napoleonic Wars and then in Canada from 1822 to 1832, but he was best known as a prolific artist and author of travel books. He wrote and painted about his time in Spain, Switzerland, and Italy but he is best known for his works on Canada and the Niagara Falls. In the ten years he spent in the country he developed a style which would come to define the picturesque ideals of Quebec and the Canadian wilderness. He used water colours, highlighting where he needed in gouache and graphite, to produce soft tones and delicate lighting. He focused on the community life of Quebec, depicting religious processions, fishing and ice cutting, market days and tourist spotting. Within this hustle and bustle he places the Canadian wildlife, the ice, waterfalls and forests, achieving a magisterial yet loving quality.

The superb aquatints are titled as follows: Plate 1. Cape Diamond and Wolf's Cove from Point a Pizeau; Plate 2. The Ice Pont formed between Quebec & Point Levi; Plate 3. Quebec from below Aubigny Church, Point Levi; Plate 4. The Falls of Montmorency; Plate 5. The Cone of Montmorency, as it appeared in 1829; Plate 6. The Lower City of Quebec, from the Parapet of the Upper City.

One of only a handful of copies, with only three appearances at auction on record, and all five of the institutional copies are in individual plates (National Gallery of Canada, McCord Stewart Museum, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (only five plates), Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (only three plates) Musée de la civilisation (only one plate)).

First edition; large landscape folio (52 x 73 cm); 6 hand-coloured aquatint plates by C. Hunt after Cockburn, mounted on stubs, watermarked 1831, lower margins lightly rubbed, each with engraved title to lower margin dedicated to William IV; superb contemporary style later full straight-grained blue morocco, boards richly gilt with Greek key outer border, edges with gilt roll, spine lettered in gilt in seven compartments, a fine copy.