Lot 219: JOHN CLEVELEY THE ELDER

THE FRIGATE H.M.S. PALLAS IN THREE POSITIONS
signed and dated lower left: I. Cleveley 1769

34 7/8 by 53 5/8 in.; 88.7 by 136.3 cm.

oil on canvas

In the family of the present owner for at least 100 years.

The H.M.S. Pallas was a 5th Rate ship (36 guns, 728 tons) launched at Deptford in 1757, the flagship of a new class of frigates designed for speed and maneuverability. This new class was designed by Thomas Slade, who had been appointed Surveyor of the Navy in the early 1750s, and was built to counter a perceived superiority in French cruiser design. The Pallas had a twentry six year career, initially patrolling the French and English coasts and the Mediterranean. Between 1774-77, she made a series of voyages to the coast of West Africa in order to survey and report on the forts and factories then under British control. During this period, the second lieutenant was Gabriel Bray (1750-1823), an amateur artist who made numerous watercolor drawings of daily life on the Pallas, her crew members, and many of the places they visited. (1) In 1783, returning from Halifax, Nova Scotia to England, the Pallas developed several leaks that grew increasingly worse when heavy seas were encountered. She was eventually run ashore on the island of São Jorge in the Azores where it was discovered that her keel and garboards were worm eaten beyond repair. The commander at that time, Captain Christopher Parker, ordered the Pallas to be burned.

Cleveley often used the present format in his ship portraits of portraying a vessel from two or three different vantage points. A similar example is The Royal Charlotte, An East Indiaman, in Three Positions off St. Helena, signed and dated 1772, sold Sotheby's London, April 3, 1996, lot 16.

1. The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England has in their collection an album with over 70 of these drawings by Gabriel Bray.