Tower of Santa Catalina. Valencia

Tower of Santa Catalina. Valencia   

James Harfield Kernot after David Roberts, 1838 

Steel engraving 

The hexagonal bell tower of the Church of Santa Catalina was designed by Juan Bautista Viñes and built between 1688 and 1705. It is one of the most iconic towers of Valencia and marks the entrance to the Mercat quarter. The artist offers a general impression of the 56m-tall tower from the nearby square, which is surrounded by four-storey townhouses. Elegant figures enliven the foreground, while the signage on the facades on the right highlights the commerce in this area, including a ‘Gran Café de San Fernando’, a ‘Peluquería’ (hairdresser), and a ‘Fábrica de Chocolate’ (chocolate factory).  

The image was engraved for The Tourist in Spain and Morocco (1838), and the author explains that Valencia’s ‘architecture and street views, as will be seen in the plates, are often picturesque and impressive, especially at midnight when lighted up, and on occasion of public festivals […] the view from the tower of Santa Catalina, in itself offering a remarkable specimen of elaborate and ornamental architecture, which, extending over a wide space, opened glimpses of the fine street perspectives never lost on the eye of the true artist’ (p. 152). 

Title: Tower of Santa Catalina. Valencia. 

Author/Artist: James Harfield Kernot (1802-1858, engraver) after a drawing by David Roberts (1796-1864).   

Technique and Material:  Steel engraving, paper.  

Size: 140 x 94 mm (image).    

Published: Plate [9] from Thomas Roscoe, The Tourist in Spain and Morocco, London: Robert Jennings & Co, 1838, facing page 152.  

Date: 1838.  

Marks and Inscriptions: lower edge, left: ‘Drawn by D. Roberts, from a sketch by Lieut. Edridge, of the Royal Artillery’; centre: title as above / ‘London. Published Octr 28 1837, by Robert Jennings & Co. 62, Cheapside’; right: ‘Engraved by J.H. Kernot’.  

Institution: Barry Ife Collection.