The oil painting, 'Wreckers off Fort Rouge' - a stormy view from seaward - was an early success of Stanfield's. It won him a £50 premium from the British Institution when it was exhibited there in 1828, and was engraved as a mezzotint by J. P. Quilley the following year. This relates to it, though a very different view of the old Napoleonic defence fort off Calais, here seen from landward in the harbour entrance at low tide. It bears an integral signature and date 'C. Stanfield 1827' at the bottom of the image. The source is probably a watercolour (12 1/2 x 11 ins: 317 x 279 mm) which the Birmingham pen maker and collector, Joseph Gillott, bought from Henry Wallis (possibly the engraver) on 23 May 1860 for £133 8s. This was in Gillott's sale, 4 May 1872 ( lot 500); bt by Lane for William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (1817-85) of Witley Court, Worcestershire and Dudley Castle, Staffordshire, for 360 gns. It was not in his sales at Christie¹s 16 June 1900 or 13 July 1923 and remains unlocated (Information supplied by Jeannie Hobhouse, Nov. 2006 from her research on Gillott's collection). A fully attributed but unsigned oil version - though possibly in fact a copy - on canvas (13 1/2 x 11 3/4 ins: 343 x 298 mm) was sold at Christie's, London, British Pictures, lot 80 (ill.) 22 Nov 2006. [PvdM 11/06]