Artist: James Duffield Harding (1797–1863), after a sketch by William Page (1794–1872)
Engraver: Edward Francis Finden (1791–1857)
Technique: Original Antique Steel Engraving, Plate fifty six
Dimensions: Plate: 10.2x14.7 cm | Page: 15.0x22.9 cm
Status: Authentic eighteen fifty six print, struck from the original 1836 steel plate, explicit text attributions on the lower border
Publisher: A. Fullerton & Co., Edinburgh & London
About the Artwork:
This authentic antique steel engraving, published in 1856, presents a historic topographical panorama of Mytilene, the capital city of the Island of Lesbos, Greece. The location holds notable biblical significance as a stopover destination for the Apostle Paul during his third missionary journey through the Aegean Sea, as cited on the lower border at Acts chapter twenty, verse fourteen: "And when he met with us at Mytilene, we took him in". The scene was composed by the prominent British landscape master James Duffield Harding, adapting a detailed field study drawn on-the-spot by the topographical artist William Page.
Engraved onto steel with exceptional precision by Edward Finden, the composition features the coastal city wrapping around a calm bay, with its historic stone houses, slender minarets, and a prominent medieval hilltop fortress crowning the central ridge. The foreground highlights a winding rocky path animated by regional Greek figures in traditional local attire, including a traveler leading a laden donkey. A lone, slender pine tree anchors the left foreground under a dramatic sky with distant Anatolian mountain ranges across the water. This plate is sourced from the mid-nineteenth-century geographical publication A Gazetteer of the World.
About the Artists:
James Duffield Harding (1797–1863): A major British landscape painter, lithographer, and teacher celebrated for his technical architectural drafting skills and work alongside John Ruskin.
William Page (1794–1872): An English topographical artist who traveled extensively through Greece, Turkey, and the Near East, compiling precise architectural and historical landscape studies.
Edward Finden (1791–1857): A master London line engraver who, alongside his brother William, produced some of the finest premium steel-plate illustrations of the nineteenth century.