Captain Augustus John Hervey, later 3rd Earl of Bristol (1724-1779) in the 'Phoenix' taking 14 French Ships at Argenteira, 9th November 1756
Dominic Serres the elder, RA (Auch 1722 – London 1793)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1769 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
510 x 730 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 851776
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Captain Augustus John Hervey, later 3rd Earl of Bristol (1724-1779) in the 'Phoenix' taking 14 French Ships at Argenteira by Dominic Serres the elder, RA (Auch 1722 – London 1793), signed on a spar bottom right: D. Serres. 1769. Seascape with the ship Phoenix at left foreground with ten French frigates in background. Small boat in centre being rowed away from the Phoenix, flying the Union Jack. Three other small craft to the left. Green rolling and wooded countryside. Town of Argenteira discernable on centre hill. Signed and dated on floating log, bottom right. 1756. Inscribed in yellow along bottom:H.M. Ship Phoenix Capt. Hervey taking 14. French Ships at Argenteira. Novbr. the 9th. 1756. Maritime painting.
Provenance
3rd Earl of Bristol; his mistress, Mrs Nesbitt (d. 1824); by whom given or left to the Hon. Anne Phipps, Lady Murray (d.s.p. 1848); one of seven pictures by Serres, celebrating the "Naval Achievements of the Honourable Commodore Hervey" in a group of 42 paintings and drawings inserted by her into a sale held by Robins in his Maddox St. Rooms, 17 May 1827, lots 110-151 (lots 112-118); one of a set of three pictures by Serres of 1769 (the first was this picture's present companion; the second a lost painting of The Burning of the 'Rose' by the 'Monmouth'), inserted into [? Joseph Robins's] sale, Christie's, 21 February 1834, lot 85: bought in (cf. the other picture in this sale: i.e. ICK.P.24 - Gore 44, the Gainsborough of the Augustus John Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol.); thence by descent to the 4th Marquess (1863-1951), on the death of the 3rd (1834-1907); after his death accepted in lieu of tax by HM Treasury, and transferred to the National Trust in 1956.
Credit line
Ickworth, The Bristol Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1956)
Makers and roles
Dominic Serres the elder, RA (Auch 1722 – London 1793), artist