19th-century engraving depicting the Santa María, the ship used by Christopher Columbus. Alamy For four centuries, Spain’s prodigious naval power built an empire that stretched around the globe.

It was there that he put aside the portrait studies and dark palette of the Henri years to concentrate on architecture, depicting bridges and buildings glowing in the soft French light.

Stratification in Mountains and Basins; Fissures and Craters Engraving Antique Illustration, Published 1851. Source: Original edition from my own archives. Copyright ...