Lot 47: Thomas Jones Barker (1815-1882)

Nelson on the captured San Josef after the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, 14 February 1797 signed 'Thos. Jones Barker' (lower right) oil on canvas 61 x 109 in. (155 x 277 cm.) in the original gilded composition frame EXHIBITION London, Sotheby's, Rule Britannia!, 2 January - 29 January 1986, no. 93. NOTES On 1 February 1793, France declared war on Britain and Holland, signalling the start of a struggle of global dimensions which was to last almost twenty-five years. In 1796, the French invaded the north of Italy, and Spain made an alliance with the French republic. Nelson, at this time, had already been involved in important British actions against the French, at Corsica (where a shot had struck the gravel bank where he stood, driving debris into his right eye and destroying his sight in that eye, and in frustrating French movement and trade in the Gulf of Genoa. The Battle of Cape St. Vincent, fought on 14 February 1797, against the Spanish fleet was to show him as a man of quite exceptional ability and tactical brilliance. At a certain point in the battle, the English line had cut the Spanish fleet into two parts. Nelson, who was commanding the rear in the Captain, observed that the Spanish leading ships were bearing up so as to pass astern of the English line and regroup. He set the course of the Captain to obstruct their progress and engaged the largest ship then afloat, the Spanish flagship Santisima Trinidad, providing a delay which enabled other English ships to come up in support. The Captain suffered many losses in the engagement and Nelson, finding her unmanageable, laid her alongside the San Nicholas which he carried by boarding. The San Nicholas had itself fallen on the San Josef and Nelson therefore boarded the San Josef and took her surrender. This picture shows the captain of the San Josef presenting his sword to Nelson on the quarter-deck (the Admiral of the ship was below, mortally wounded). Nelson afterwards wrote of the occasion, 'I desired him to call to his first officers, and on the quarter-deck of a Spanish first-rate, extravagant as the story may seem, did I receive the swords of vanquished Spaniards, which, as I received, I gave to one my bargemen, who put them with the greatest sang-froid under his arm.' When the fighting was over, he boarded the Victory, where the Admiral of the British Fleet, Sir John Jervis, gratefully embraced him. In recognition of his conduct he was made a Knight Companion of the Bath and was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. SALESROOM NOTICE This lot is sold together with a booklet produced by Leggatt, Hayward & Leggatt to accompany the engraving of the present picture that they published on 10 November 1853. The booklet includes a detailed description of the Battle of St Vincent, a key identifying the sitters in the picture, and a plan showing the positions of the British and Spanish fleets during the engagement. The lot also includes a letter from Commander R.N. Knocker, dated 30 October 1949, describing a lithograph after the original oil painting that he examined in the Officers' Mess of the Welsh Regiment (previously known as the 69th Foot Regiment). The lithograph, framed with wood from the San Josef, was of particular interest to the regiment, as one of their members, Lieutenant Pierson, is depicted alongside William Fearney (one of Nelson's bargemen), who is taking the surrendered swords.