Segovia

Segovia 

Louis Haghe after George Vivian, 1838 

Hand-coloured lithograph 

This image, drawn by the Belgian lithographer Louis Haghe (1806-1885), should be compared with the previous item, the artist’s original sketch. Haghe was working on a stone that had a different shape from the double-page opening in Vivian’s sketchbook – 240 x 395 mm as against 138 x 436 mm – similar to the difference between an aspect ratio of 4:3 and 16:9. This practical challenge required Haghe to make a number of adjustments to Vivian’s sketch. The viewpoint is a little further away from the Alcázar, making the road and the foreground more prominent; a substantial section of the mountains to the left has been omitted and the ravine has been made narrower, as has the distance between the church and the cathedral. 

There is a good deal more sky than in the sketch, and Haghe has added several human figures both in the bottom-right corner, and, perhaps most persuasively, on the road into the city. These figures help to emphasise both the height of the crag on which the city stands and the elevated viewpoint from which we observe it. But otherwise Haghe has captured the most important aspects of Vivian’s original sketch, especially the fairy-tale look and feel of the castle along with its elongated turrets, taller and slimmer than they are in real life, and the slightly distorted conical roofs. 

Title: Segovia. 

Author/Artist: Louis Haghe (1806-1885, lithographer) after George Vivian (1798-1873, artist). 

Technique and Material: Hand-coloured lithograph on paper. 

Dimensions: 240 x 395 mm (image), 550 x 370 mm (page). 

Published: Plate 13 from George Vivian, Spanish Scenery. London: P & D Colnaghi, 1838. 

Marks and Inscriptions: on the plate, bottom right: title as above; ‘Day & Haghe Lith. 17 Gate St’. 

Institution: Barry Ife Collection.