Lot Essay
Vidal, a paymaster in the British Navy, was one of the most important travelling artists working in South America in the early 19th Century. Ackermann published his Picturesque Illustrations of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video in 1820 and his popular images of life in the new republic reflected British interest in South America which had been rife since Popham and Beresford took Buenos Aires for the British in 1806.