Bilbao

Bilbao 

Paul Gauci after George Vivian, 1838 

Hand-coloured lithograph 

This rather bucolic view of Bilbao is unusual in that few foreign travellers seem to have taken the trouble to visit the town or to make a visual record. The viewpoint is from the south bank of the river Nervión, looking northwards towards what is now the Casco Viejo. The large building in the centre is the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Begoña. Its dominant position overlooking the rest of the town gave it strategic importance in both the Peninsular and Carlist wars. In August 1808 the Napoleonic army ransacked the church and murdered the priest, and in 1835, two years after Vivian made this drawing, Bilbao was besieged by Carlist forces under General Zumalagárregui and the defending troops dynamited the bell tower to prevent the church from being used by the enemy. 

Whether Vivian knew about the destruction of the tower and the consequent damage to the vaulted roof is difficult to know. But, as he says in his preface, during his second visit to Spain in 1837 he had seen such widespread evidence of the destruction caused by the political turbulence of the intervening years that he felt ‘a strong desire to preserve some trace’. Vivian’s drawing therefore preserves some trace of the building as it was before 1835 whereas Villaamil drew it in its ruined state some ten years later (España artística y monumental, volume 3, plate 136). 

This is the sole example of Paul Gauci’s work in Vivian’s Spanish Scenery and, given his relatively young age (circa 1807-1875), is likely to be among the earliest examples of his published work. His father was the Maltese lithographer Maxim Gauci (1774-1854) who settled in London in 1809 and established one of the leading printing houses, specialising in botanical prints. Paul’s drawing reproduces Vivian’s sketch quite faithfully, but the donkey cart in the foreground is his own invention.  

Title: Bilbao. 

Author/Artist: Paul Gauci (c. 1807-1875, lithographer) after George Vivian (1798-1873, artist) 

Technique and Material: Hand-coloured lithograph. 

Dimensions: 250 x 420 mm (image) 550 x 365 mm (page). 

Published: Plate 24 from George Vivian, Spanish Scenery. London: P & D Colnaghi, 1838.  

Date: 1838. 

Marks and Inscriptions: on the plate, bottom right: ‘Bilbao’; lower edge, left: ‘G. Vivian Esq[uire] del[ineavit]’; right: ‘P. Gauci lith[ographer]’. 

Institution: Barry Ife Collection.