Lot 1: Robert Woodcock , 1692-1728 The Launch of a Man of War oil on canvas

signed l.l.: R: Woodcock 1727 oil on canvas

42 by 50 cm., 16 1/2 by 19 3/4 in.

London, Royal Academy, Painting in England, 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1964-1965, no. 135;
Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, 1965, no. 124

E. H. H. Archibald, Dictionary of Sea Painters, 1980, p. 235

Paul Mellon by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art;
Sale of Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection, Sotheby's London, 18th November 1981, lot 85 (bt. by the present owner)

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
As a clerk at the Admiralty Robert Woodcock developed a keen interest in ships, making drawings of them in his spare time and later taking up oil painting at the age of thirty. An admirer of the works of the van de Veldes, he executed many copies of their work and his style remained heavily influenced by them. Despite this Woodcock's later works show a confidence and originality which is exemplified in his painting of the Royal William (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich), as well as in the present painting . He died in London at the age of thirty-six, after only six years as a professional painter. The ship being launched in this painting is possibly the Romney, a 4th rate 44-gun ship of the Royal Navy, which was rebuilt at Deptford in 1726.