Richard Short (military artist)

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Richard Short
Quebec City after the war, pub. 1761, by Richard Short
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)naval officer, artist
Known forsketching's of Maritime subjects and Canada during the Seven Years' War
A view of the Jesuit College and Church in Quebec City, 1760

Richard Short (fl. bef. 1750, aft. 1766)[1] was a military artist, best known for sketches he made of Quebec City, shortly after its capture by British forces.[2][3][4] The appearance of many of the old French régime's principal buildings are known only from Short's sketches. He is also known for his sketches of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and notable naval engagements of the times.[5]

Life

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The Dictionary of Canadian Biography describes Short as a military officer, noting that in the days before photography officers were encouraged to learn how to paint or draw images for military purposes.[2] But it also notes that he was merely a ship's purser, in Quebec. Short served aboard British Royal Naval ships HMS Baltimore built 1742, Peregrine built 1749, Mermaid which sailed without him to Nova Scotia in 1754, Gibraltar built 1754, Leopard, the Prince of Orange which brought him to Quebec in 1759,[2] Dublin which returned from the West Indies in 1763 and Neptune, before accepting an appointment at the Royal Navy's Chatham Dockyard.

Short served on HMS Prince of Orange from 1759 to 1761,[6] and he was directed to make drawings, to record the appearance of principal Quebec buildings, following its capture.[7] Also in 1759, while his ship was moored in Halifax, he sketched the then only ten-year-old town.[8] The six views he drew were among the earliest images of Halifax ever produced.[8] Parliament passed an act directing the publishing of his drawings.[9] Two sets of Canadian prints were published, Twelve Views of the Principal Buildings in Quebec (1761), and Six views of the town and harbour of Halifax in Nova Scotia (1777).[10] Painter Dominic Serres was commissioned by Short to create paintings based on the Halifax views; those remain in the collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.[8]

The Glorioso (far right) with French ships of war, Gloire, and Jason, pub. circa 1755

On February 2, 2017, the Montreal Gazette published an article about one of Short's drawings of Quebec, as part of its coverage of Black History Month.[11] The image showed a number of distant figures, including a black boy, in fancy clothes, attending a pair of affluent civilians, inspecting damage to a church. The article claims, Short captured “...the first image of a black person in Quebec, maybe even in Canadian history,” most likely a slave.

Some sources describe Short as part of the British garrison, as a Major, or Naval Captain.[12]

References

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  1. ^ "Results, Maker: "Richard Short (Fl.1750-1777)"".
  2. ^ a b c "Richard Short". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Archived from the original on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018. Nothing is known of Richard Short's naval career except the vessels in which he served: Baltimore (a sloop), Peregrine (a sloop built in 1749), Mermaid (a frigate, which he appears to have left before she sailed for Nova Scotia in 1754), Gibraltar (a frigate), and four ships of the line, Leopard (built in 1756), Prince of Orange, Dublin (which returned from the West Indies in 1763), and Neptune. After this service at sea he was appointed to the Chatham dockyard, England. Though the list of ships does not indicate extensive service for Short in North America, the Prince of Orange brought him there in the fleet accompanying Wolfe's forces in 1759.
  3. ^ "Richard Short". Marianopolis College. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018. While he was in garrison at Quebec in 1759-60 he executed a series of twelve engravings of Quebec which were published in London in 1761, and are now much sought after by collectors.
  4. ^ R. Bruce Elder (2006). "Image and Identity: Reflections on Canadian Film and Culture". Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 20. ISBN 9781554586776. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  5. ^ J. Russell Harper (1977). "Painting in Canada: A History". University of Toronto Press. p. 47. ISBN 9780802063076. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018. Richard Short, purser of HMS Orange, made detailed drawings of Quebec buildings after the capitulation, and several historic and celebrated structures of the French regime are known only through Short's views.
  6. ^ Tuck, Robert (2008). Churches of Nova Scotia. Dundum. p. 155. ISBN 978-1550024784. Retrieved 26 April 2019. sketches (made) by Richard Short, purser on HMS Prince of Orange 1756-61, using a camera obscura. These sketches were used by Dominique Serres to create paintings of Halifax.
  7. ^ Richard Short (1761). "Twelve Views of the Principal Buildings in Quebec: From Drawings Taken on the Spot, at the Command of Vice-Admiral Saunders". Thomas Jefferys. Retrieved 11 October 2018. Published, according to Act of Parliament, by Richard Short, and sold by Thomas Jefferys, at Charing Cross, 1761
  8. ^ a b c Cronin, Ray (2023). Halifax Art & Artists: An Illustrated History. Toronto: Art Canada Institute. ISBN 978-1-4871-0315-6.
  9. ^ Joseph Sabin, Wilberforce Eames, R.W.G. Vail (1891). "Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, from Its Discovery to the Present Time, Volume 19". Bibliographical Society of America. p. 484. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "Release: The Winkworth Collection".
  11. ^ Monique Polak (11 February 2017). "Slavery in Quebec: Shedding light on a largely unknown history". Montreal Gazette. Archived from the original on 27 January 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  12. ^ Sir James MacPherson Le Moine (1882). "Picturesque Quebec: A Sequel to Quebec Past and Present". Dawson brothers. p. 131. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018. The oldest inhabitant can yet recall, from memory, the spot where it stood, even if we had not the excellent drawing made of it with a half dozen of other Quebec views, by an officer in Wolfe's fleet, Captain Richard Short. It stood on the site recently occupied by the shambles, in the Upper Town, facing the Russell House. Captain Short's pencil bears again testimony to the exactitude, even in minute things, of Kalm's description: his Quebec horses, harnessed one before the other to cats. You see in front of the church, in Captain Short's sketch, three good sized horses, harnessed one before the other, drawing a heavily laden two-wheeled cart.
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