Campo de Gibraltar Countryside through Thomas Ender’s Album of Drawings

Abstract

At the beginning of his career, in 1817, the Austrian painter Thomas Ender was part of the scientific expedition that travelled to Brazil with the Archduchess Leopoldina of Hapsburg’s court. His mission was to document the journey and, specifically, that American territory over which Austria expected to exercise control after the marriage of the young Archduchess to the heir to Portugal’s throne.The technical stopover that was usually made in the port of Gibraltar lasted longer than expected and, during the month of May and the first days of June, the artist captured aspects of the landscape, the cities of Gibraltar and Algeciras, the Tarifa countryside and the boats in the bay. These representations are the subject of this study and are part of an album, called the «Rodolfo Garcia Collection», acquired in 1937 by the National Library of Brazil.