Marine Art Antiques

Oil on Canvas of Marine Painting

Oil on Canvas of Marine Painting. Early Victorian School. C. 1840. Dimensions : W-63 H-48 (cm)

Portrait of a Naval Officer; English School c. 1700

Oil on canvas in a good quality carved and giltwood period frame. Painted within the fashionable feigned oval, the sitter is dressed in a relaxed manner, a cape thrown over his shoulder in the Classical style. In the background can be seen what appears to be a ship-of-war leaving a fortified port. The craft is a two decker, and gunports can just be made out; she flies the red ensign at the stern and a commander's pennant at the mast head. It seems most probable that the sitter is the captain of this ship - at this period uniforms were not worn in the Royal Navy. The artist has a slightly naive, almost sculptural style...very pleasing and direct. He was probably one of the many unknown travelling artists of the period who wandered over the country painting the lesser nobility and gentry. They were often found at naval ports where a captain returned from a successful voyage would spend some of his prize money on a portrait. (see Item 8473 for a portrait by the same artist of a young man, possibly the son of the above sitter, as the two paintings have been always been together). SIZE: 37 x 32 inches inc. frame. Well carved period frame. PROVENANCE; English Private Collection