Nelson & His World

I have taken up my own suggestion and opened a thread on the artwork of naval officers.

Two well known naval officers who were accomplished artists were the brothers Frederick William and Richard Beechey, sons of William Beechey, who painted many naval officers of the day.

These two links give a flavour of their work but there is much more on the internet.

http://tinyurl.com/7a2l9te

http://www.aradergalleries.com/detail.php?id=1624

Incidentally, I have a letter, dated 31 December 1820, written by Earl St Vincent to his friend Dr Baird, Physician to the Fleet, in which he mentions that 'Lt Beechey left us this morning having heard that another North Pole enterprise is afoot. He is a well-informed, modest, unassuming young Man, and will I hope see rewards according to his merits.'

Beechey senior was also a good friend of Nelson's and it was, so Oliver Warner records in his 'Portrait of Lord Nelson', to young Frederick William that Nelson gave the battered hat that he wore at the battle of the Nile.

A story I have recently been drawn to is that of the son of the marine artist William Anderson. His son William Guido Anderson was mortally wounded serving as a midshipman onboard Bellona at Copenhagen. It would appear he inherited some of his fathers artistic talent, an example of his work survives. This illustrated letter comes from the catalogue of NMM:

http://prints.rmg.co.uk/image/389165/william-guido-anderson-action-between-leander-and-french-two-decker-genereux-18-august-1798

I find it interesting that in the description it states 'These are typical of the drawings naval officers were taught to make'.
To what extent and by whom were the officers taught?
Would this help to explain the depth of artistic talent among naval officers?

Richard, I think it may be referring specifically to the four coastal drawings, rather than the pictures of ships. Officers were certainly encouraged to draw silhouettes of the coast, especially headlands and notable landmarks, to serve as a future aid to coastal navigation. I don't imagine they were often taught to execute the fine art shown in the central pictures.

Naval officers were certainly taught to draw and I have in various publications, in my 'modest' library, examples of their work. Many of the officers are now very well known, for example Bligh, and I did wonder if there are any examples of any such work executed by Nelson. Does anyone know of any?

As Tony mentioned, officers were encouraged to draw from a more practical point of view rather than artistic one. Various foreign coasts and headlands were frequently drawn, which would have been of the greastest use for navigation and any offensive actions that were contemplated. Apparently the Naval Academy at Portsmouth employed a drawing master, so the subject was taken very seriously. That a naval officer should develop into an accomplished artist, and many did as shown by the general scenes they painted, was I think really a secondary consideration.

Conversely, many artists were employed to accompany naval expeditions. I would imagine this idea goes back to the Van de Veldes in Charles ll's time and continued up to our period, such as with the employment of Sydney Parkinson on Cook's Endeavour expedition of 1768. An interesting book I have (although I haven't yet read fully) is 'Eyes of the Admiralty – J.T. Serres, an Artist in the Channel Fleet, 1799-1800', by Captain M K Barritt, which concerns the work of artist John Serres, son of the perhaps better known Dominic Serres. He was employed by St. Vincent to produce detailed drawings of the French coast, in particular the Biscay coast and the area around Brest. They are very attractive to look at and show in detail, headlands and rocks from various angles, and from the height of an observer aboard ship. The book is in long format, to accomodate the length of the drawings which he executed – 26 in all and which are kept in a long box, apparently known as 'the coffin', in the archives of the UK Hydrographic Office. For those interested, I think it would be a good read.

As an aside, I thought it might be worth mentioning that it is the custom of the Artistic Records Committee of the Imperial War Museum formally to commission artists to record events during conflicts involving British troops. As one can see in the list in this link, many famous artists were involved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_of ... ar_artists

I recall that during the Falklands conflict in 1982, one of the official war artists was Linda Kitson, the first woman artist to accompany troops in battle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Kitson

Here is a link to some of her images of the conflict:

http://tinyurl.com/6mws67n

If anyone has not yet read Sam Willis' "Glorious 1st of June" it has some fascinating stuff on naval artists and how they portrayed the engagement.