File:The Battle of the Saints, 12 April 1782- surrender of the 'Ville de Paris' RMG BHC0446.tiff
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Summary
Thomas Whitcombe: The Battle of the Saints, 12 April 1782: surrender of the 'Ville de Paris' | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Object type |
painting object_type QS:P31,Q3305213 |
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Description |
English: The Battle of the Saints, 12 April 1782: surrender of the 'Ville de Paris' The Saints are a group of small islets in the West Indies between Guadeloupe and Dominica. They gave their name to the final sea battle of the War of American Independence, 1775-83, which was fought under their lee between the British West Indies fleet commanded by Admiral Sir George Rodney, with 36 ships of the line, and his French counterpart, Vice-Admiral the Comte de Grasse with 30 ships of the line. De Grasse had sailed from Fort Royal, Martinique, with a trade convoy and a large military force. Having dispatched the former for Europe he aimed to move on to attack the British island of Jamaica. Rodney, watching from St Lucia, pursued him and fought a running action off Dominica on 9 April, concluding with a victorious set-piece battle south-west of the Saints three days later. The latter is chiefly remembered for introducing the tactic of 'breaking the line'. This Rodney did against de Grasse as the two fleets passed on opposing courses and the French line was forced into more open order by a change of wind. Rodney led the way through a gap, casting the enemy into disorder by engaging from the opposite side. The tactic was subsequently adopted in the Navy as a desirable addition to fighting instructions. The painting shows the 'Barfleur' in action in the centre, pouring a broadside from her starboard guns into the stricken French flagship, 'Ville de Paris'. The latter is to the right, striking her colours, with both ships in starboard-quarter view. 'Barfleur' flies the red distinguishing flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood at the mizzen, a red ensign at the stern, and a red signal flag at the fore. In the extreme right foreground is the stern of another surrendered Frenchman. In the left foreground a boat full of cheering sailors is pulling over to take possession of a dismasted Frenchman on the extreme left. On the left and considerably beyond is Rodney's 'Formidable', in starboard-quarter view, firing her starboard guns into a Frenchman, seen in port-bow view with a missing foremast. The French ship 'Ardent', 64 guns, is visible on the far right flying the red ensign over French colours to indicate it has been captured. The 'Ardent' was built at Hull in 1764 and captured by the French in 1779. Following her recapture at this battle she was renamed 'Tiger'. Across the background are other ships in action. Whitcombe was born in London in about 1752 and painted ship portraits, battle scenes, harbour views and ships in storms. Although his output was vast, little is known about him. He produced a large number of subjects from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815, and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1783 and 1824. His depiction of ships implies specific knowledge of life at sea, although he probably spent most of his career in London. Many of his works were engraved and they included 50 plates to James Jenkins's account of 'The Naval Achievements of Great Britain', published in 1817. The painting is one of a pair with BHC0445 and is signed and dated 'T.Whitcombe 1782'. |
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Date |
1783 date QS:P571,+1783-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 |
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Medium | oil on canvas | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Dimensions | Painting: 766 x 1230 mm | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Collection |
institution QS:P195,Q7374509 |
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Accession number |
BHC0446 |
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References | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Source/Photographer | http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/11938 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Permission (Reusing this file) |
The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose. The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright. |
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Identifier InfoField | Acquisition Number: 1931-40 Caird Catalogue Number (CCAT): CC V1, P14, 111 id number: BHC0446 |
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Collection InfoField | Oil paintings |
Licensing
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain".
This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details. |
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Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
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current | 03:55, 25 September 2017 | 4,755 × 2,961 (40.28 MB) | Fæ | Royal Museums Greenwich Oil paintings (1783), http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/11938 #1346 |
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