Lt. Joseph Moore

Following Burmese
incursions into British held territory to include the successful invasion of
Assam, the Governor General of India declared war on Burma in February 1824.
The British sent an expedition of 11,000 men under Maj General Archibald
Campbell and ships under Captain Frederick Marryat. Providing a visual record
from the departure of Campbell's invasion force until shortly after the capture
of Rangoon, this superb series of aquatints were after drawings made "on
the spot" by Lieutenant Joseph Moore of the 89th Regiment. A second series
of six plates by Marrayat was published the following year.

Although developed
in the late 17th century, the Aquatint process was not introduced
into England until the 1770’s by Paul Perez Burdett who had studied under the renowned
Jean Baptiste Le Prince in Paris. Burdett sold his process to Paul Sandby who
developed it further, coining the term aquatint. This new technique enabled
much greater atmospheric variety to be achieved, recreating the tonal
complexities of paintings. Although the medium became favoured by many
continental masters, it was English etchers who employed it most elaborately as
an expression of the Cult of the Picturesque, an aspect of The Romantic
Movement.

Moore’s aquatints are
the first large-scale, coloured views of Burma and beautifully express the
dichotomy between picturesque idylls and the realities of war. The First Anglo-Burmese
War of 1824-26 was to be the most expensive
campaign in British Indian history and subsequently would lead to a severe
economic crisis there in 1833. At the Treaty of Yandabo (1826) the Burmese
ceded to the British large areas in the east to include Manipur, Assam and
regions from the Salween River to the Bengal Sea in addition to accepting
crippling indemnity payments. This was the beginning of the end of Burma’s
independence; two further wars with the British followed and the country was
completely annexed in 1886