Maritime Art Archive
The Action in Fatshan Creek, 1857
This coloured lithograph shows the attack at Fatshan Creek in 1857. This battle was fought during the Second Opium War. The First Opium War, fought in the 1840s, had ended with treaties designed to open Chinese trade to the West, but the United States and Britain became dissatisfied and returned in October 1856. Their goal […] Read More
A Fifteenth-Century Merchant Ship
This print of a fifteenth-century merchant ship was taken from a line engraving c.1470, the only known impression of which is held in the British Museum. She is shown with a large square sail set on the main mast and smaller square sail on a smaller mast at the stern. Two men stand on the […] Read More
The Mary Rose Action and the Barbary Pirates (1669)
Wenceslaus Hollar was born in Prague in 1607 and became one of Europe’s most famous artists of the seventeenth century. Hollar was immensely well travelled and spent much of his life in the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, a significant politician and diplomat in the reigns of both James I and Charles I. […] Read More
The Bombardment of Algiers, 1816: The Quarterdeck of the Queen Charlotte
This dramatic aquatint shows the action on board the 104-gun First Rate Queen Charlotte, Lord Exmouth’s flagship at the Battle of Algiers. The ending of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 created an opportunity for the British to tackle head-on a problem which had been causing significant trouble for more than 300 years: the North African […] Read More
The Royal Sovereign, 100 Guns
The engraving was made by Elisha Kirkall (1682-1742), a prolific engraver and innovative printmaker. It is an engraving of a magnificent oil painting by Willem Van de Velde the Younger of the Royal Sovereign of 1701, one of the most important ships in the history of the Royal Navy. A replacement for a ship of […] Read More
An Armed Vessel Putting out to Sea, c.1565
This engraving by Frans Huys shows an armed vessel is shown putting out to sea c.1565. The engraving was based on an original oil painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Brueghel was the most important of several generations of Brueghels, all artists, woking out of the Netherlands in the sixteenth century. This particular print is […] Read More
Sir Francis Drake 1540?-1596
Hondius was a Flemish and Dutch cartographer particularly well known for his maps of the New World and Europe. This portrait was engraved during his residency in London from 1584, made to celebrate Francis Drake’s circumnavigation 1577-80. Drake is shown in a powerful pose. To his right is a globe showing Africa and Asia, to […] Read More
Bonaparte in Torbay, at Anchor, on board His Majesty’s Ship Bellerophon, Capt F C Maitland, July 24, 1815…
This coloured aquatint is a view of Torbay and the festival-like atmosphere caused by Napoleon’s arrival in Britain the summer of 1815, shortly after his defeat at the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon was kept on board while preparations were made for his exile. Bellerophon’s captain, Frederick Maitland, was ordered by the Admiralty to await orders […] Read More
Situation of His Majesty’s Frigate Java… Action with the American Frigate Constitution… rendered totally unmanageable
This detailed and accurate hand-coloured aquatint is based on a painting by Nicholas Pocock, one of the most celebrated marine artists of the period. It shows a key moment in the war of 1812 when, on 29 December, the immensely powerful frigate USS Constitution engaged the British frigate HMS Java. The battle continued for three […] Read More
Critical position of HMS Investigator on the North coast of Baring Island, August 29th 1851 (1854)
This superbly detailed coloured chromolithograph is plate IV of a series of eight illustrations published by Day & Son entitled ‘A Series of Eight Sketches in Colour: together with a Coloured Map of the Route; By Lieut. S. G. Cresswell, of the Voyages of H. M. S. Investigator, Capt. Mclure, during the Discovery of the […] Read More