English School, early 19th Century, Sandy Point and Brimstone Hill Fortress, St Kitts
English School, early 19th Century
Sandy Point and Brimstone Hill Fortress, St Kitts
oil on canvas
unframed
103⁄4 x 261⁄4in. (27.4 x 66.7cm.)
There are early views of the site, one taken from further back by Lieutenant Charles Forrest ('A View of Brimstone Hill in the Island of St Christopher's, taken from the Beach, in Sandy Point Bay'), plate 1 in Forrest's Views in the West Indies, London, 1783-5, and two ('Brimstone Hill, St Kitts', and 'Sandy Point, St Kitts') in Lieutenant J.H. Caddy's Scenery of the Windward and Leeward Island published in 1837. The present view is taken closer in, at the anchorage below the 800 foot high Brimstone Hill, with Jack Tars lounging in the foreground and Charles Fort beyond.
The volcanic Brimstone Hill, the 'Gibraltar of the Caribbean', named for the sulphurous fumes emanating from underwater vents below, was fortified from the late 17th century. The fortress was designed by British military engineers and built by African slaves. It was the largest British fortification in the eastern Caribbean, and supported Charles Fort at its foot, seen here, and the trading town of Sandy Point and its harbour and anchorage, an important port serving the island's plantation economy and nexus for trade between the British and Dutch West Indies (the Dutch Sint Eustatius - for which see lot 12 - is the neighbouring island to the northwest of St Kitts). Sandy Point, founded in 1620, its shore lined with hundreds of Dutch warehouses, was the commercial centre of the island until activities and government moved to Basseterre along the coast in 1727. The fort at Brimstone Hill was taken by the French in 1782, returned to the British by the Treaty of Paris the following year, and attacked again by the French, unsuccessfully, in 1806. The citadel was abandoned by British forces in 1853. Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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English School, early 19th Century
Sandy Point and Brimstone Hill Fortress, St Kitts
oil on canvas
unframed
103⁄4 x 261⁄4in. (27.4 x 66.7cm.)
There are early views of the site, one taken from further back by Lieutenant Charles Forrest ('A View of Brimstone Hill in the Island of St Christopher's, taken from the Beach, in Sandy Point Bay'), plate 1 in Forrest's Views in the West Indies, London, 1783-5, and two ('Brimstone Hill, St Kitts', and 'Sandy Point, St Kitts') in Lieutenant J.H. Caddy's Scenery of the Windward and Leeward Island published in 1837. The present view is taken closer in, at the anchorage below the 800 foot high Brimstone Hill, with Jack Tars lounging in the foreground and Charles Fort beyond.
The volcanic Brimstone Hill, the 'Gibraltar of the Caribbean', named for the sulphurous fumes emanating from underwater vents below, was fortified from the late 17th century. The fortress was designed by British military engineers and built by African slaves. It was the largest British fortification in the eastern Caribbean, and supported Charles Fort at its foot, seen here, and the trading town of Sandy Point and its harbour and anchorage, an important port serving the island's plantation economy and nexus for trade between the British and Dutch West Indies (the Dutch Sint Eustatius - for which see lot 12 - is the neighbouring island to the northwest of St Kitts). Sandy Point, founded in 1620, its shore lined with hundreds of Dutch warehouses, was the commercial centre of the island until activities and government moved to Basseterre along the coast in 1727. The fort at Brimstone Hill was taken by the French in 1782, returned to the British by the Treaty of Paris the following year, and attacked again by the French, unsuccessfully, in 1806. The citadel was abandoned by British forces in 1853. Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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