Lot 183: Portrait of Horatio, Viscount Nelson, K.B., Vice-Admiral of the White (1758–1805), half-length, in Vice-Admiral's undress uniform, cocked hat with black silk cockade and green eyeshade, with the stars of the Bath, the St. Ferdinand and the Crescent

Arthur William Devis (London 1762-1822) Portrait of Horatio, Viscount Nelson, K.B., Vice-Admiral of the White (1758–1805), half-length, in Vice-Admiral's undress uniform, cocked hat with black silk cockade and green eyeshade, with the stars of the Bath, the St. Ferdinand and the Crescent oil on canvas, unlined 14 x 12 1/8 in. (35.6 x 30.8 cm.) in its original composition frame with an autograph letter signed by Nelson to Captain Page, Piccadilly, 4 March 1803, recommending a friend’s godson, and hoping that Page is enjoying his new command, the HMS Caroline, one page (seal tear, browned, laid down on paper)

35.6 x 30.8 cm.

London, Royal Academy, 1807, no. 43. London, South Kensington Museum, National Portraits Exhibition, 1868, no. 5. Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, 1967, on loan.

R. Walker, The Nelson Portraits, London, 1998, pp. 162 and 261, no. 197, illustrated.

Painted in 1805 for Admiral Benjamin William Page (1765-1845), by whom given to, The Rev. W.S. Halliday, Glenthorne, Lynton, Devon, and by descent to the present owner.

Soon after the news of Nelson's death at Trafalgar, Joseph Boydell placed an advertisement for a picture of 'The Death of Lord Nelson' for which a prize of five hundred guineas was offered. Devis took up the challenge and in preparation spent three weeks on board the Victory on which Nelson's body had been transported home, preserved in a casket filled with alcohol. As soon as they had sailed out of the Solent, Dr. Beatty, the Victory surgeon, undertook an autopsy at which Devis was present and able to make sketches for a portrait of Nelson which Beatty had commissioned for himself. This was later used in modified form for his large composition of the Death of Nelson (Greenwich, National Maritime Museum). First hand experience of the Admiral's features together with the advice of those on board who had known their commanding officer, allowed Devis to paint the most realistic of the posthumous portraits of Lord Nelson. The original portrait painted for Beatty (Walker, op. cit., p. 262, no. 198) was probably the unfinished oil engraved by Scriven and used as the frontispiece in Dr Beatty's Authentic Narrative of the Death of Nelson. In addition to the present picture, which was given to Admiral Page, Devis made several autograph versions of the the Beatty portrait, including those for Captain Capel and Lady Hamilton. The portrait shows Nelson wearing the green eyeshade recommended by Thomas Trotter, shortly before the Battle of Copenhagen, to protect his eyes from the glare of the seas. One of these shades can be seen in a case near the effigy in Westminster Abbey.