Dover Castle / Le Chateau de Douvre

Location

Country: Belgium
City: Brussels
Place: British Embassy, UK representation to the EU & UK delegation to NATO

This 18th-century print shows a view of Dover Castle with the harbour and the city. The scene includes vessels passing through the harbour, the cliffs, the castle and other landmarks identified by the key below the image. One of the first Norman castles in England, Dover Castle was established by King Harold in 1066, before meeting William the Conqueror at Hastings. In the 1180s the square Keep and its surrounding walls were added. Other sections, including the towers, outer walls and gatehouses, date from the 13th century. The castle remained relatively untouched until the 18th century, when it was strengthened again against a Jacobite invasion, and the towers and battlements were made more level to suit contemporary artillery. The fortifications were further reduced during French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Dover Castle is currently under the care of English Heritage.

Marine painter Isaac Sailmaker, a contemporary of Willem van de Velde II, may have been named after an earlier occupation. He is thought to have been born in Scheveningen in the Netherlands and came to England as a young man to work for Flemish portraitist and dealer Georg Geldorp. Sailmaker received commissions from Oliver Cromwell and Colonel John Lovett, MP. His paintings included ship portraits, actions of the English fleet and historical subjects, sometimes including imagery features. Very few paintings by him are signed and this has led to some uncertainty in attributing works to his hand. When he died in London he was in his late eighties.

Places

England, Dover Castle, Dover, Kent, English Channel

Subjects

topography, seascape/coastal scene, dog, cliff, man, flag, road, house, castle, church, ship

Materials & Techniques

engraving

Artist

Isaac Sailmaker (c.1633 - 1721)
Hendrick Hulsberg ( - 1729)

Title

Dover Castle / Le Chateau de Douvre

Date

Medium

Engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Mr Egerton Banks, 1947

Inscription

bottom right: [in ink] 20

GAC number

396