Boston Harbor View from Castle William, Hand-Colored Aquatint by Fumagalli, 1827

Boston seen across the harbor, an original hand-colored aquatint engraved by Paolo Fumagalli for Giulio Ferrario's Il Costume Antico e Moderno, plate 39, published in 1827. The plate number is engraved at the upper right and Fumagalli's name is lettered at the lower left.

The view looks over the water toward the long, low skyline of the town, where a row of church spires rises above the roofs and hills rise behind. In the foreground, on the near shore, stands a large pink and tan building with a flag flying beside it, identified in the previous text as Castle William, later Fort Independence, on Castle Island in the harbor. A few small sailing boats dot the calm water, and trees fill the lower left. The coloring is delicate: a pale yellow sky, green water and soft pink buildings, within a plate mark on wide margins.

Ferrario's multivolume survey of the costumes and customs of the world gave a small place to the United States, and this plate is an early Italian view of Boston.