Emeric Essex Vidal was an engraver and painter, born in Brentford, 29 March 1791. He joined the Royal Navy when he was 15 and on his travels to the Baltic region, the Cape of Good Hope, St Helena, the West Indies, North America and South America he was prompted to apply his skill as a draughtsman and water colourist to the production of local views.
Emeric Essex Vidal was a purser for fifty four years in the British Navy and was one of the most important travelling artists working in pre- and post-independence South America.
While staying in Brazil and Río de la Plata from May 1816 to September 1818, he produced water-colours of Brazilian landscapes and the regions surrounding Montevideo and Buenos Aires. He also recorded numerous views of Buenos Aires, its port and neighbouring villages, and its inhabitants. Twenty-five of these hand-coloured aquatints after his illustrations were published in the book "Picturesque Illustrations of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, etc" by Emeric Essex Vidal (1820), accompanied by Vidal’s written commentary.
He visited Buenos Aires and Montevideo twice at the end of 1816, the year Argentina became independent, returning 1828-9. He was stationed on St Helena 1820-1, during Bonaparte's exile there. He died in Brighton, 7 May 1861.
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