File:The Battle of Quiberon Bay, 20 November 1759 RMG BHC0399.tiff
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Summary
[edit]Nicholas Pocock: The Battle of Quiberon Bay, 20 November 1759
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Title | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Object type |
painting object_type QS:P31,Q3305213 |
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Genre |
marine art ![]() |
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Description |
English: The Battle of Quiberon Bay, 20 November 1759 The Battle of Quiberon Bay, on 20 November 1759, was the most decisive naval encounter during the Seven Years War, 1756-63, a conflict involving the major European colonial powers and fought around the globe. France had been at war with Britain since 1756, her position in Canada, India and the West Indies was on the point of collapse and in Europe she faced stalemate against Prussia, which received British support. The battle resulted in the destruction of the French Brest fleet and occurred when the French broke out of the five-month English blockade of Brest. In an attempt to solve her problems the French planned to land an army of 20,000 men in Ireland. This force was assembled largely in the gulf of Morbihan in southern Brittany under the Duc d'Aiguillon, and was to be escorted by the Brest fleet under Admiral Hubert de Conflans. Admiral Sir Edward Hawke's Channel Fleet blockaded Brest to prevent the French leaving to collect the troop transports but, during a gale in the first week of November, Hawke's ships were forced to run for shelter in Torbay, giving de Conflans the chance to escape. On hearing that the French had done so Hawke went in pursuit and, on 20 November, sighted him 20 miles out to sea. De Conflans, relying on local knowledge, ordered his fleet to take refuge in Quiberon Bay, south of Morbihan, assuming Hawke would not follow, both because night was quickly coming on and when he saw the area was one of ill-charted rocks, reefs and wild seas. This was a miscalculation, for Hawke relentlessly pursued him into the bay, losing two of his own ships on the outer reefs but sinking the French 'Thesee' and 'Superbe' by a combination of gunfire and the weather, and otherwise decimating de Conflans' force in what became an action practically in the dark. The French flagship ‘Soleil Royal’ went aground in the bay, near Le Croisic, and was burnt to prevent capture the following day. Others were captured including the 'Heros', which was burnt. A few French ships escaped to Rochefort and some others managed to find refuge in the mouth of the River Vilaine, where they were trapped for months and one more ('Inflexible') lost by grounding. This action stopped any French plans to invade Britain during the Seven Years War. The famous naval song 'Hearts of Oak' was composed to commemorate the battle, which was fought so close inshore that contemporary accounts reported that ten thousand persons watched it from the coast. This rather later painting by Pocock is partly based on an earlier one by Dominic Serres (see BHC0400) and shows Hawke's 'Royal George' in the left centre, with his blue admiral's colour at the main, in action with de Conflans' 'Soleil Royal' to the right, though the latter is wrongly shown as a three-decker. A French ship astern for the 'Royal George' is firing broadsides on both sides, her starboard battery probably directed at Augustus Keppel's 'Torbay' , while between them the French 'Thesee' sinks by the bows. This was largely due to water swamping through her lower and forward leeward gunports in the heavy seas, since this battle was an example of the disadvantage of fighting with the 'weather gauge' (the generally assumed benefit of being to windward). The painting, for which the Museum also has preliminary pencil sketches (PAD8709 and PAD8712), is signed 'N. Pocock 1812'. |
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Date |
1812 date QS:P571,+1812-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 |
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Medium |
oil on canvas ![]() |
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Dimensions | Painting: 673 mm x 1080 mm; Frame: 875 mm x 1278 mm x 60 mm; Overall: 16 kg; | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Collection |
institution QS:P195,Q7374509 |
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Current location | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Accession number |
BHC0399 |
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Notes | This picture was no.1 on in a list of six pictures offered to the Museum by Sidney Sabin (dealer) in June 1932 the dimensions being given as 26 3/8 x 42 ½ ins (which match the metric ones) and that it was 'in fine carved frame', as it is, and dated 1812. It was the only one which Callender was interested in for NMM but the price of £470 was too high. Sabin explained that the pictures belonged to a third party, who set the price, and for whom he was acting (Callender-Caird correspondence refers, 26 and 28 June). The matter dropped and it was eventually acquired in 1944 (acq no 1944-69.1) when purchased via Spink for £275 along with BHC0505 by Whitcombe (the latter from a Sotheby auction), though it is not clear where the Pocock was then from: possibly the previously unidentified owner mentioned by Sabin, or another, or an as yet unidentified auction. See Caird catalogue, vol 1 typed supplement p.197. [PvdM 10/14] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source/Photographer | http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/11891 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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: 1944-69.1 id number: BHC0399 |
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Collection InfoField | Oil paintings |
Licensing
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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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current | 16:06, 25 September 2017 | ![]() | 7,200 × 4,452 (91.71 MB) | Fæ (talk | contribs) | Royal Museums Greenwich Oil paintings (1812), http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/11891 #1380 |
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