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This tranquil scene was drawn in 1636 when Hollar was traveling with the Earl of Arundel’s embassy to the imperial court of Ferdinand II. Steiereck, now called Steyregg, is a few miles east of Linz, on the Danube, en route to Vienna. The barges in the foreground flying the flag of St. George, which are featured in many of Hollar’s drawings of the journey, are part of the English ambassador's flotilla. Hollar’s drawings of the Arundel embassy trip cover more than one hundred sheets. These drawings may have been intended as illustrations for the journal published by William Crowe, Arundel’s secretary, recounting the embassy’s travels, but they were not included in the 1637 publication. Hollar is here serving as an expedition artist, as he did again much later when he was appointed by Charles II to go to Tangiers with Lord Henry Howard to take views of the town and fortifications. In a letter to Charles requesting an appointment for this expedition, Hollar signed himself “his Majesties Scenographer.”

Lisa Ford

Wilcox, Forrester, O'Neil, Sloan. The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2001, cat. no.4 N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)