François Xavier Habermann
Vue d’Optique/Die Zerstörung der Königlichen Bild Säule zu Neu Yorc (Optical View/Destruction of the Royal Statue in New York)

Vue d’Optique/Die Zerstörung der Königlichen Bild Säule zu Neu Yorc (Optical View/Destruction of the Royal Statue in New York)

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Artist François Xavier Habermann (German, 1721–1796)German, 1721–1796

Artistafter Balthasar Friedrich Leizelt(German, active 1750–1800)German, active 1750–1800

Publisherpublished by Habermann and Leizelt(Augsburg)Augsburg

CultureGerman

Titles

Vue d’Optique/Die Zerstörung der Königlichen Bild Säule zu Neu Yorc (Optical View/Destruction of the Royal Statue in New York)
from Collection des Prospects

Datec. 1776

PlaceAugsburg, Germany

MediumEtching and engraving with watercolor on laid paper

DimensionsPlate: 11 3/8 × 16 in. (28.9 × 40.6 cm)
Sheet: 15 3/4 × 19 3/8 in. (40 × 49.2 cm)
Frame: 18 3/8 × 22 1/4 in. (46.7 × 56.5 cm)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by First Interstate Bank of Texas, N.A. in honor of Peter C. Marzio at "One Great Night in November, 1995"

Object numberB.95.13

Not on view

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Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

PRINTS

DescriptionThis print is by François Habermann, a German printer and publisher working in Augsburg, Germany, known for a series of engravings portraying American cities, including New York and Boston, during the Revolutionary period. While some of these optical views are based on first-hand drawings, often they are fictitious and originally published for a European audience with no specific knowledge of American cities. This view depicts the destruction of a statue of King George III on July 9, 1776, following a public reading of the Declaration of Independence in New York. As in other Habermann views, the details are fictitious, including the apparently enslaved men preparing to pull down the statue.

This special type of popular print was used as a form of entertainment meant to be seen through devices called “optical machines” or “zogoscopes.” The striking use of perspective lines in these optical views make them visually playful as well as historically intriguing. The main title is printed at top as a mirror image; when viewed through the optical machine it would appear correctly.
Provenance[Martayan Lan Augustyn, Inc., New York]; purchased by MFAH, 1995.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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