ATTRIBUTED TO CHARLES FREDERICK DE BROCKTORFF (GERMAN/DANISH 1775 - 1850)
FRONT VIEW OF THE GOVERNORS PALACE IN THE CITY OF VALLETTA, ISLAND OF MALTA

watercolour on paper
mounted, framed and under glass

image size 37cm x 55cm, overall size 61cm x 73cm

Note: Brocktorff had fought in the Napoleonic wars as an infantry officer with the forces of the Electorate of Hanover before moving to England after 1809. When he settled in Malta in circa 1810, he opened an art studio in Valletta where his business prospered and his four artist sons eventually joined to continue to enrich the family enterprise. Brocktorff, who painted mainly for visitors and servicemen, captured whatever was interesting to foreign eyes, such as St Johns Co-Cathedral, the Governors Palace, the Auberges, the Public Library and magnificent views of the Grand Harbour. He also portrayed various classes of Maltese society for the benefit of English buyers who were curious to know how the Maltese lived. Two albums containing a total of 89 watercolours by Brocktorff are located at the National Library of Malta. One of them had originally belonged to Frederick Ponsonby, and it was collected in around 1829 or 1830 when Ponsonby was Governor of Malta. The other was compiled in around 1849 by Henry Benjamin Hanbury Beaufoy after he had purchased the watercolours from an auction of the contents of Stowe House. Both albums were acquired by the National Library of Malta in the 1920s, and studies of their contents were published in 2007 and 2008.