Lot 371: Peter Monamy (British, 1689-1749)A Large First Rate off a Coastline????? signed, oil on canvas

30 x 44 1/2 in. (76.2 x 113 cm.) Peter Monamy was born in London in January, 1681, the son of a Jersey merchant. In 1696 he is recorded in the Painter Stainers Company Building Book as being apprenticed to William Clark, becoming a freeman in 1703. Monamy's professional training was in house decoration, comprising ceiling decoration and painting canvases for wall panels. He was also trained as a sign painter and gilder. He soon made a name for himself as a marine painter, closely following the style of the younger William van de Velde. In 1736, together with Francis Hayman and Willai Hogarth, he was commissioned to assist in the decoration of the new pleasure gardens at Vauxhall, and each of his paintings was engraved. Monamy was active in an important stage in the development of British marine painting, and his industrious career spanned over 40 years, providing an excellent record of ships and maritime scenes during the first half of the 18th century, He died in London in February 1749 at the age of 68. Examples of Monamy's work can be seen at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia.