Lot 32: JOHN CLEVELEY THE ELDER ACTIVE 1747-1792

THE BRITISH FLEET AT SEA, 1688

measurements note
87 by 193 cm., 34½ by 76 in.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

The Trafalgar Tavern, Greenwich;
Anon. sale, Christie's, 18th June 1976, lot 122

EXHIBITED

South Mobile, Fine Arts Museum;
Annapolis, The United States Naval Academy Museum, 22nd April-31st May 1986;
Little Rock, The Arkansas Arts Centre, 10th October-23rd November 1986;
Columbia, Columbia Museum of Art;
Alburquerque, Albuquerque Museum of Art, Loan Exhibition, March-May 1987

LITERATURE

M.S.Robinson, Van de Velde: A Catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and Younger Willem van de Velde, 1990, Volume II, p.959, no.454 version [3]

NOTE

It has been suggested that the present composition depicts the English fleet at anchor off the coast of Harwich, under the command of the Earl of Dartmouth (see Robinson, op. cit., p.957-958). The present work derives fom signed work by William van de Velde The Fleet at Sea 1688, which hangs at the Admiralty, and which belongs to the Government Art Collection. Given the date of 1688 it is certainly likely that the composition is connected to the invasion of William of Orange.

In November 1688 the Earl of Dartmouth's fleet was lying in the Gunfleet off the Naze, and a log of H.M.S. Foresight records that on 2nd November a flyboat was captured, full of soldiers loyal to the Prince of Orange. William finally landed with his fleet at Torbay in mid November, and the revolution was complete by the end of the year.

If the scene is correctly identified, then the flagship in the left background with the Union flag at the main would be H.M.S. Resolution, a 70-gun ship built in 1667. The only problem with this identification would appear to be that the artist has shown the vessel with three decks of guns, whereas the Resolution only carried two. This may have been a mistake originally made by Van de Velde or one of his assistants, who may have assumed that the Admiral of the Fleet would sail in a three-decker. The other flagship in the right background might then be indentified as H.M.S. Elizabeth, with Sir John Berry's blue flag at the fore as Vice-Admiral of the fleet.

John Cleveley the Elder is known to have painted a version of this composition, and a signed and dated painting by Cleveley was recorded as in the collection of Willis, Faber and Dumas, London by Robinson (op.cit.p.961). John Cleveley was one of the most talented Van de Velde followers. From about 1747 until the mid-1750s he painted a series of launches of ships at Deptford Dockyard, and the present work is a rare and exciting example of a composition on a similar scale.