Beleg van Gibraltar
1780 - 1782
Medium
etching
Dimensions
120; 105
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
blad: hoogte 105 mm x breedte 120 mm
Art Historical Context
Simon Fokke’s *Beleg van Gibraltar* (1780–1782) captures a pivotal moment in the Great Siege of Gibraltar, the lengthy contest between British forces and the combined Spanish and French fleets that lasted from 1779 to 1783. Working in Amsterdam, Fokke produced this modest etching at the height of the conflict, translating dramatic military events into a portable print that could reach a wide European audience hungry for news of the war. At just 105 by 120 millimetres, the small sheet exemplifies the democratic power of etching in the late eighteenth century. The technique allowed artists to create fine linear detail quickly and to print multiple impressions at low cost, turning battlefield reports into objects that could be collected, studied, or displayed in private homes. Fokke’s restrained yet precise line work guides the viewer’s eye across the rocky peninsula and surrounding waters, inviting contemplation of both strategic geography and human endurance. Today the print serves as a quiet witness to how eighteenth-century Europeans experienced distant conflicts—not through photographs or headlines, but through the intimate scale of a hand-held etching.
About the Artist
Simon Fokke · 1712–1784
Comment on works: Draugstman; Portrait