Edward Angelo Goodall (1819-1908).

[View of Vreed-en-Hoop, across the from Georgetown, British Guyana].

Georgetown, British Guyana, 1841.

Watercolour, signed and indistinctly dated. (24.7 x 36.2cm). Paper watermarked J Whatman 1840.

Mounted on passe-partout along edges.

This watercolour view of the ferry wharf and sugar factory of Vreed en Hoop was made by Edward Goodall during the Schomburgk expedition to inland Guyana in 1841. Vreed en Hoop was located in West Demerara, across the Demerara river from the capital Georgetown. In this drawing a steam ferry can be seen crossing towards the ferry wharf. The factory was the place where the cane sugar from plantations would be refined before it was loaded on ships for export to North America and Europe.
Young artist Edward Goodall was not meant to accompany Robert Schomburgk on his boundary exploration expedition to the borderland of British Guiana and Venezuela. The intended artist was W.L. Walton but he got sick and was replaced by Goodall, who was just 22. In addition to establishing the boundaries, they had been commissioned by the Prussian government to collect flora and fauna specimens in the Guyana forests for the Royal Museum and the Botanical Gardens in Berlin. Not only did Goodall sketch plants and animals, he importantly also depicted the local people they encountered. Upon return in Europe, Goodall's botanical sketches were displayed in Berlin and the Amerindian Tribes sketches in London and Paris.  The sketches aroused much interest and were eventually returned to Goodall who donated them to the Colonial Office. From there they ended up in the British Museum and are now in the British Library.

Condition: minor tear in top left corner, a few repaired pinholes, otherwise in very good condition.

Literature:

Michael St John-McAlister, “Edward Angelo Goodall (1819-1908): An Artist's Travels in British Guiana and the Crimea”. In: Electronic British Library Journal, 2010, no. 5.

The chimney and ferry wharf on the Admiralty Chart No 533 Georgetown and Mouths of Demerara & Essequibo Rivers, published 1872.