Antique Engraving of Rio de Janeiro, Harbor View by Schröder & Kunike, 1830s

Rio de Janeiro seen from the water, an original steel engraving issued in the 1830s from a German series of views. The plate title "Rio Janeiro" is engraved below the image, with a roman plate numeral at the upper right. The engraving is printed in black on cream paper, with the artists' credits in small lettering beneath the image: it is based on a sketch of 1824 by A. Schröder, drawn by C. N. Weiss and engraved by A. Kunike.

A sailing boat leans into the wind at the left and a small rowboat with figures pulls through the swell at the center, while a spar or buoy tilts out of the waves in the foreground. Beyond the water the low line of the city extends along the shore, with fortifications, church towers and buildings picked out against the hills and mountains behind.

The view dates from only a few years after Brazil declared independence from Portugal in 1822, when Rio was the capital and chief port of the new empire and an object of growing curiosity for European readers of travel literature.