"View of Saint Malo taken from Dinard"

The "Cité Corsaire" will never cease to fascinate artists. His fame earned him a series of representations from the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century in which our work is part. In comparison we can cite “The view of Saint Malo taken from the Anse des Sablons in Servan” painted in 1798 by Jean-François Hue (1751 – 1823) preserved at the Maritime Museum.

or, from the same period, the engraving by Pierre Ozanne (1728 -1811) “The Port of Saint Malo seen in front of Saint Servan in front of the Eperon” whose drawing has disappeared.

But which artist knows the sea and Saint Malo better than Ambroise Garneray (1783-1857), painter, sailor and privateer who sailed alongside Surcouf? Between 1821 and 1830, he traveled to numerous ports in France where he made countless sketches which would serve as the basis for engravings or paintings. A series including the representation of Saint Malo is preserved today in the former Hotel Potocki, currently the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Our precise and detailed work is an interesting testimony to navigation on the Emerald Coast at the beginning of the 19th century. Animated by several buildings, the presence of mixed sail and steam powering the rotation of paddle wheels, and in particular a three-masted ship in the center of the composition, is not insignificant. It reflects the beginnings of this new propulsion. Indeed, steamboats were experimented with at the end of the 18th century and were in full swing at the end of the 19th century. Paddle wheels gradually disappeared from 1845 to make way for propellers. This English steamer flying the Red Ensign flag is very probably one of the first ferries to sail between England, the Channel Islands and Saint Malo. The spire of the bell tower of Saint Vincent Cathedral does not yet exist since it was erected in 1860.