Engraving A wooden bridge over a river - Bruegel

A member of an old English family, Peter Hawke arrived in France with his family where he spent most of his life. Passing through Dinan and then Paris, he then settled on the banks of the Loire. Adventurous spirit and traveller, sometimes illustrator, sometimes watercolourist and draftsman, he left many drawings from Angers and illustrated various local publications including the famous L'Anjou and its monuments published by Dr. Godard in 1839.
His engravings, preceded by numerous graphite pencil drawings, sometimes enhanced with a pen, also adorned Souvenirs of the 1839 exhibition, then Souvenirs of the 1842 exhibition.
In 1844, he began to illustrate for Count Fourbarbe his book Les oeuvres complètes du Roi René. It seems that this was his last major work in Angers. Always eager for new trips, he went to the United States and then took part in the Carlist War in Spain.
He spent the last thirty years of his life in Mustapha, where he was mayor. He died at the age of 86 in 1887 in Tunis.
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