THE FRENCH AND FOREIGN NAVIES

THE FRENCH AND FOREIGN NAVIES

Morel-Fatio's albums are one of the most - if not the most - precious pictorial sources about the XIXth century sailing navy.

Very familiar with the area of Normandy, Morel-Fatio was a sailor who had an almost-sensual love with the seashore, but an even more deeply-rooted one for ships.

Co-founder of the Société des Régates du Havre (the Society of the Le Havre Regattas), Morel-Fatio played a rôle in the development of the sport of sailing in France. Along with the novelists Alphonse Karr, Alexandre Dumas and some other painters, he started in 1847 a public subscription to finance the construction of a clinker-built yacht « L'AVENIR », in order to challenge the invincible British racer « L'ALARM », in the Le Havre regatta.

But it is in the area of detailed plates that More-Fatio's contribution is irreplaceable : indeed, it was as a naval archaeologist as well as a sailor and an artist that he drew ships. Named as curator of the Musée de la Marine and of the ethnographic collections of the Musée du Louvre in 1852 at the end of his careeer, More-Fatio had acquired a remarkably profound erudition for the time. In 1854, he drew-up the Register of the Maritime Collections of the Musée du Louvre.

The first edition of « The French and Foreign Navies » of 1865, with a descriptive text by Léon Renard that contains many interesting elements, was written by a contemporary of the painter. Of course, this editorial choice cannot take the place of commentaries that could have been made by Morel-Fatio himself, a careful witness of the scenes he has generally drawn live. We may believe, however, that Renard did not betray Morel-Fatio since, indeed, both men were to publish other works together such as « Merveilles de l'Art Naval »written by Léon Renard and illustrated with 50 small woodprints by Morel-Fatio (in 1866, the following year).

The pleasant format in the Italian style that enhances the beauty of the plates was chosen for the present repint.

This first reproduction of the rarest of works containing 56 pages of descriptive text by Léon Renard and 43 25 x 32 cm plates, by Morel-Fatio, 22 of them in color (colored first edition) also contains a 52 x 42 plate showing the boarding of the British frigate l'AMBUSCADE by the French corvette la Bayonnaise on December 14, 1796.

List of the 72 plates :

Dispatch schooner
16-gun brig
British transport ship
Sailling barge
Etretat fishing boat
Etretat boat under sail
Small lugger
Spanish fishing boat
Maltese boat
Neapolitan fishing boat
Long boat and spare spars in a war brig
Merchantman in refit
Ship’s boat lashed on deck
Bowsprit rigging
Windlass
Ship’s head
Lighter
Brailed foresail
Algerian privateers
Decommissioned ships
Floating barracks
Trained 30-pounder gun
War Schooner at anchor
State-owned cutter
20-gun brig-of-war
English yachts
Second rate 90-gun Ship-of-the-line
Boats of Britanny
American 38-gun frigate
French 60-gun frigate
Merchant brig hauled up on the ways
Short range coasting
English fishermen
Pole mast
Brailed topsail and foretopsail
Granville fishermen
First-rate ship lying-to
Dutch boats
Le Hare pilot-boat
Normandy sloop
Various British pilot boats
Balanzella and Napolitan xebec
Inside a battery at night
Steamship prepared for war
Arabian nay: Moka fishing boat
Raft
Beden-Safar
Baggala
Calais fishermen
Steam ship towing a three-masted bark
Merchant vessels at anchor
Small steamship
Mediterranean coasters
Spanish Mistic
A corette undergoing repair
Pacific ocean ships: Californian craft
Praos from the Carolina Islands
Double Pirogue from Honolulu
Pirogues from the Sandwich Islands
Eskimo pirogue
Prao from the Krusenstern Islands
Beached Merchant essels at low tide
Spanish schooner-brig
A Flambart heading into Fécamp
Dutch galiot
French 60-gun frigate
Wreck of the British brig Sea-Mew
Combat between the Bayonnaise and the Ambuscade
Armored vessels

Author : Léon Renard et L. Morel-Fatio