In the Harbor of Catania

This page of pen sketches documents a journey to Sicily, capturing scenes from the harbor at Catania with quick, assured linework. The upper sketch depicts sailing vessels at anchor; the middle section shows figures amid cargo and supplies on the dock; the lower drawing records workers engaged in harbor labor. The artist employed rapid gestural notation to capture movement and incident—a working method common among travel illustrators of the period. These studies demonstrate the observational practice that underpinned professional illustration, where artists accumulated visual reference material from direct experience for later use in finished compositions.