Description

Hand-colored copperplate engraving depicting a side view of a stranded whale, surrounded by spectators, some on horseback or in carriages. There are men, women, children, and a dog in the assembly. The scene is drawn looking along the beach, such that the lines of the sea, the sand, and sand-dunes behind the shore join together at the horizon in the background. Under the image is an area of printed text in Dutch; above is a vignette showing another view of the cachelot. The vignette is captioned "de Vis tegen de Rug te Zien" (Eng: The fish seen from the back). The title comes from the text below the image, which text, in its entirety, translates to: "Cachelot or sperm whale, about 60 feet long, stranded just north of Egmond on the Levend Sea, on the 15th of February, 1764. J. Maart sold it there by auction for 810 Guilders. Drawn from life on 19 February, and made in copper in Haarlem, by Cornelis van Noorde."