Maritime Art Archive
The China War 1857, a sunset sky, a round fort with pointed tower. (1857)
This is one of nine watercolours made during the Second Opium War (1856-60) by Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton. The British defeated the resistance of the Qing Dynasty, legalised the lucrative trade in opium and created a permanent diplomatic presence in China for Britain as well as France and Russia. A key moment in the war was […] Read More
A cow, lying down
In 1991 The Society for Nautical Research purchased an album of 73 sketches by Lieutenant Gabriel Bray and donated them to the National Maritime Museum. Bray, served as a second lieutenant on the 38-gun HMS Pallas between December 1774 and September 1775. Read more about the Bray collection at the National Maritime Museum and see a Lieutenant’s […] Read More
A Dutch Admiralty Yacht off Flushing (17thC).
The painting shows a heavily decorated Dutch Admiralty yacht, towing a ship’s boat viewed from the starboard quarter. Yachts like these were used by members of executive boards of the Admiralty, the United East India Company, the States General and the governments of the maritime provinces. They would have included spacious living quarters and a […] Read More
Lord de Cliffords house at Kings Weston 5 miles from Bristol – with a View of the King-road and the Bristol Channel – and the opposite coast of Wales (1782)
In 1991 The Society for Nautical Research purchased an album of 73 sketches by Lieutenant Gabriel Bray and donated them to the National Maritime Museum. Bray, served as a second lieutenant on the 38-gun HMS Pallas between December 1774 and September 1775. Read more about the Bray collection at the National Maritime Museum and see a Lieutenant’s […] Read More
The Escape of HMS Calliope
HMS Calliope, launched in 1884, was a Calypso-Class Corvette and became one of the most famous ships of the Royal Navy in the last quarter of the nineteenth century when she was the only vessel, of a mixed fleet of thirteen British, American and German vessels, to survive a tropical hurricane which struck Samoa in […] Read More
The Battle of the Texel, 11-21 August 1673 (late 17thC)
This painting of the Battle of the Texel (1673) was made by Willem van Der Velde the Younger, an extremely gifted painter of maritime scenes (1633-1707) and the son of Willem Van Der Velde (1610-1693). The battle was a hard-fought draw between the Dutch on one side and the English and French as allies on […] Read More
A Grazing Horse
This is just one of seventy-three sketches by Gabriel Bray that were preserved in an album and purchased for the National Maritime Museum by the Society for Nautical Research’s MacPherson Fund in 1991. The image depicts a horse – probably a riding horse from the docked tail – grazing and is signed ‘May 74 AVprGB’ […] Read More
New York 1. Trial proof.
A print of New York by William Lionel Wyllie. We know that Wyllie visited New York on the maiden voyage of the White Star Line’s Majestic, which left Liverpool for New York on 2 April 1890. This was at a time of vigorous competition fo the ‘Blue Riband’ – The Majestic did not win it on her […] Read More
‘England Expects’ [Nelson’s ghost in front of the Queen’s House, Greenwich] (1927)
This framed drawing in the collections of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich shows a ghostly figure of Nelson standing in Greenwich Park, gesturing with his hat in his left hand towards the Queen’s House, now home to the National Maritime Museum’s art collection. On the bottom of the mount is the caption ‘England Expects […] Read More
The Electric (c.1860)
The clipper ship Electric is shown sailing on the port tack in a brisk breeze and on choppy seas. The small vessel in the foreground is a New York pilot boat, flying a distinctive ‘P’ flag. The flag flown by the Electric is particularly interesting, being an early form of the flag of the United […] Read More