Gibraltar from the Alameda

Gibraltar from the Alameda  

Thomas Shotter Boys after George Vivian, 1838 

Hand-coloured lithograph 

Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in 1713 as part of a settlement of the War of the Spanish Succession. The British enclave in Andalucía became an important base for the Royal Navy, particularly during the Peninsular War. Vivian evokes this military history by depicting British troops in the square of the Alameda, situated below the buildings on the slope to the right. In the lower right corner, two male figures wearing turbans underscore Gibraltar’s geographical proximity to North Africa and allude to the Arabic origins of its name ‘Jabal Tariq’ (‘Mount of Tariq’). It refers to the military leader Tariq ibn Ziyad, who landed here with his North African army in 711 and conquered the Iberian Peninsula from the Visigoths within a few years. In the foreground of the scene, the prickly pears and agave plants serve to emphasis the exotic. 

Vivian did not sail across the Strait of Gibraltar; however, his contemporary, the Scottish artist David Roberts did so in the spring of 1833 and visited Tangier and Tetouan in Morocco as part of his tour of Spain in 1832-1833. For many later artists, a trip to Tangier and Tetouan was an integral part of their tour through Andalucía. 

Title: Gibraltar from the Alameda. 

Author/Artist: Thomas Shotter Boys (1803-1874, lithographer) after a drawing by George Vivian (1798-1873, artist). 

Technique and Material: Hand-coloured lithograph, paper.  

Size: 360 x 300 mm (image), 550 x 370 mm (page). 

Published: Plate 22 from George Vivian, Spanish Scenery. London: P & D Colnaghi, 1838.  

Date: 1838. 

Marks and Inscriptions: on the plate, bottom right: ‘Gibraltar, from the Alameda’; lower edge, left: ‘G. Vivian Esqr delt.’; right: ‘T. Boys lith.’.  

Institution: Barry Ife Collection.