Prints

The church in this picture is Nuestro Senora de los Remedios in Malate.

"Sometimes travellers take the road which leads to Cavite. It is wide and dotted with pretty villages, which form suburbs on the left side, as Ridondo does on the other side. These villages are only inhabited by Tagals. It was in this area during the terrible Cholera epidemic of 1820 that the first troubles began. The French doctors who had gone to the help of the sick through devotion to their calling were massacred. Of all these villages, Malati, which is larger than the rest, stands out because of its pleasant situation, its pretty little church and its barracks which house a regiment of foreign troops. As the land slopes away, the houses get less frequent and the villages give way to rice paddies. Buffaloes with wild starring eyes, driven by children, plod slowly along an unkempt and uneven path which eventually comes out at the entrance to the maritime arsenal of the colony."

Captain Cyrille Pierre Theodore Laplace (1793-1875) circumnavigated the world on the corvette La Favourite from 1829-1832. The ship visited the Philippines from September to November 1830. Barthelemy Lauvergne (1805 - 1871) was draughtsman aboard La Favorite.

The original church was built c1590 but was badly damaged by the earthquake of 1645. The second church was rebuilt along with a convent 1680. In 1762 the church was occupied by the British during the occupation of Manila. It needed repairing after they left in 1765.

The church depicted in this beautiful aquatint was originally drawn by the French artist, Barthelemy Lauvergne in late 1830, who would have visited the location. It was engraved in Paris by Sigismund Himely. There appears to be a service taking place at the front and quite close to the sea front. This church was destroyed in 1868 and then later rebuilt.

This is a particularly fine aquatint with beautiful original color.

Reference

Voyage around the world on the Corvette La Favourite,during the years 1830, 1831, and 1832 under the command of Captain Laplace. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1833

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malate_Church

Thank you to Dr. Prof. Francis Urrows for identifying the Malate church for us.