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Print 2017-287
A View of CHARLES-TOWN, the Capital of SOUTH CAROLINA
Print 2017-287

A View of CHARLES-TOWN, the Capital of SOUTH CAROLINA

DateJune 3, 1776
Painted by Thomas Leitch
Engraver Samuel Smith
OriginEngland, London
MediumHand-colored line engraving
DimensionsOH: 18 1/4 in.; OW: 29 1/2 in.
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund
Object number2017-287
DescriptionView of Charleston from across the harbor.
Label TextEnglish marine artist Thomas Leitch arrived in South Carolina in 1773 and shortly thereafter began work on a majestic oil painting of the city. This painting is now owned by the Museum of Early American Decorative Arts (MESDA). In October 1773, while Leitch was still in Charleston, The South Carolina Gazette published the following advertisement "PROPOSALS for publishing by SUBSCRIPTION, a View of Charles-Town: THIS View has been taken with the greatest Accuracy and Care by Mr. LEECH, who is now employed about painting a finished Picture from the Drawings already made by him. The picture will be ready to send Home by the next Ships, expected from London, in order to be engraved; and will be so exact a Portrait of the Town, as it appears from the Water, that every House in View will be distinctly known; ... MR. LEECH cannot support the Expense of such a Work without Assistance, and therefore proposes to all Lovers of the Polite Arts, opening a Subscription, at so low a Price as a GUINEA a Piece: Half to be paid down at the Time of subscribing, the other Half on the Delivery of the Print."

"A View of CHARLESTON, in the Capital of SOUTH CAROLINA" illustrates recognizable Charleston landmarks prior to the outbreak of the American Revolution. The scene was rendered in a Dutch panoramic style that enhanced the expanse of the coastline by increasing its width in relation to its height, forcing the viewer’s eye to move back and forth across the paper, alluding to the prosperity of the city. Taken from the vantage point of a strip of land across the Cooper River known as Shute's Folly, Leitch's view presents the most important city in the American South at the outbreak of the American Revolution. In the immediate foreground three well-dressed spectators look down the river with a spyglass, while three African American laborers haul a small boat to shore.

The inclusion of only one English merchant ship in the harbor, known to have been one of the busiest trading ports in the colonies, may suggest the political tension between Charlestonians and the Mother country prior to the outbreak of the war. In 1773, just months before Leitch painted the view, Britain passed the Tea Act, and Charleston’s outraged citizens left the British-imported tea on the docks to rot.