Emeric Essex Vidal
His opportunities for travel, his curiosity about local customs and human types, and his eye for the picturesque, led him to make paintings which are now historical resources.
A landscape painter and a costumbrista, he was the first visual artist to leave records of the ordinary inhabitants of the newly emergent Argentina and Uruguay, including the first depictions of gauchos.
Although a number of his watercolours have been published as hand-coloured aquatints, or by modern printing methods, or sold at auction, it is plausible that most have been lost or await rediscovery in private collections.
)[a] The Huguenot community, who were Calvinists, were officially tolerated in England; nevertheless, they were a religious and linguistic minority, successful and self-confident, sometimes attracting popular hostility.
[5] Though born in England, in law Emeric senior was a foreigner who could not acquire British citizenship except by obtaining a private act of Parliament, which he did in 1773.
[3][8] Emeric senior married out of the Huguenot community by wedding Jane Essex in an Anglican ceremony at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London, in 1801[9] by which time the couple already had a teenage daughter and three sons.
[16] In 1832 Vidal was badly wounded and, although he volunteered for another tour of duty and struggled on for five years in frequent pain,[17] he was obliged to retire from active service on half pay which, owing to an anomaly in the naval regulations, was only 4 shillings a day.
[22] Vidal entered the Royal Navy at the age of 15 as a volunteer (i.e. an ordinary seaman) on board HMS Clyde,[23] serving under Captain Edward Owen.
[26] He performed that function on board several ships including HMSS Calypso, Calliope, Speedy, Bann, Hyacinth, Gloucester, Ganges, Asia,[23] Spartiate[27] and Dublin.
The Naval and Military Gazette explained why: Independent of the acknowledged ability required to fill an office of this description, particularly as Secretary to a Commander-in-Chief, who, in addition to the routine business of the fleet, has a vast deal of diplomatic correspondence to conduct, and who is frequently brought in contact with the most skilful and experienced statesmen, in the discussion of matters involving the question of peace or war, —independent of this, a Secretary must be extremely well informed, not only in relation to general history, but the complicated forms of international law, so as to steer clear of mistakes, and avoid involving his Admiral in errors which might be turned to the disadvantage of his country's interests.
[35] Vidal made a recovery[36] and was "still serving, although almost worn out", as late as August 1836 aboard HMS Dublin at Rio de Janeiro, where he wrote a memorial to the Admiralty, complaining that admirals' secretaries got no pensions.
In 1815, although on half pay, he visited the Canadian Great Lakes, where his younger brother Alexander Thomas Emeric was employed on surveying service,[23] and acted for a time as Secretary to flag officer Commodore Owen.
[39] In the (then) recent naval war between the United States and Great Britain on Lake Ontario both sides had "constructed immense fleets in areas which were only sparsely settled",[40] including large sea-going ships (the "Battle of the Carpenters").
Vidal's watercolour Sackett's Harbour, Lake Ontario taken 20th September 1815 is a panoramic view of the American facility, possibly sketched surreptitiously because of the still tense situation.
[42] His Commodore's House in the Naval Yard, Kingston, which is in the Royal Military College of Canada,[f] documents the British/Canadian facility, with a ship actually under construction (see the oxen) — it could not be guaranteed that the peace treaty would hold.
Wrote Luciana de Lima Martins: Rights of access to Brazilian ports had been secured by Britain in the Anglo-Portuguese treaties of the seventeenth century.
[46] British naval painters of the time were stunned by their first sight of Rio de Janeiro, its tropical light, its exotic flora and its scenery.
On this visit Vidal painted landscapes — "they give us exact details of that fantastic vegetation, and architectural representations of great value, [but] the human figure appears as merely accessory".
[52] In contrast, naval officers, "however junior, were encouraged to keep their eyes and ears open, and to take notes on the manners and customs of the native people they might encounter.
They carry their live animals, tied by the heels and thrown over their horses' backs... A baker's man, a negro-slave, is introduced; and here it may be observed, that slavery at Buenos Ayres is perfect freedom compared with that among other nations... the treatment of slaves [is] highly honourable to the Spanish character.
An extract: I shall always have great pleasure in cultivating with yourself, and between the officers and others we respectively command, that confidence and amicable feeling, which it is no less my inclination than my duty to preserve, by all means in my power...
I beg, also, further to acquaint you that, after a patient investigation in a court of vice admiralty in this island, the captain and nineteen of the crew of the pirate schooner Zaragozana, captured by the boats of his Majesty's ships Tyne and Thracian, after communicating with you in the Bahama channel in the month of March, have been condemned to death...
The letter continued: This, together with the numerous vessels which have been destroyed of late, I hope will give a check to the nefarious practices of these remorseless depredators, and relieve the peaceful trader from all fear of future outrage.
- And, in the hope of seeing this great end accomplished by the exertions of the several individuals we respectively command, in which we may preserve a commendable rivalry, I have the honor to subscribe myself, sir, your very obedient and humble servant, E.W.C.R.
In Brazil he turned the tropical light to advantage in some ship paintings e.g. HMS Ganges at Anchor and Drying Her Sails off Rio de Janeiro.
The slaves, already sickly, could not be liberated from the hot, overcrowded, unsanitary[83] vessel until she was condemned; but, since adjudication took time, quite a few died — or, on one occasion, were abducted by an armed gang.
The high-status individuals attending this Rio de Janeiro ball include the Governor General of India and the best-selling novelist Emily Eden.
[86] In 1820 the London Anglo-German publisher Rudolph Ackermann brought out Picturesque Illustrations of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video: Consisting of Twenty-Four Views Accompanied with Descriptions of the Scenery, and of the Costumes, Manners, &c of the Inhabitants of those Cities and their Environs by E.E.
Picturesque Illustrations of Rio de Janeiro was published by Librería l'Amateur, Buenos Aires in 1961, with an introduction by two members of the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute, the watercolours being reproduced by the au pochoir handcraft process.
Towards the end of his life he wrote: "Seventy are the original watercolours of Vidal, that form the most precious part of my collection of graphic records pertaining to our country; I have the satisfaction of having reunited and saved these from an inevitable dispersion and destruction.
