File:Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson 1758-1805, 1st Viscount Nelson RMG BHC2887.tiff

Half-length facing left in rear-admiral's undress uniform, 1795-1812 pattern, wearing the St Vincent medal and the star of a KB. The empty right sleeve is pinned across and the upper part slit and closed with ribbons to accommodate the wound dressing from Nelson's loss of his right arm at Santa Cruz, Tenerife, in July 1797.

This is the second of many replica portraits of Nelson made by Abbott (after an original finished oil), all based on the only oil study of him that the artist made from life. That was done after July 1797, while Nelson was painfuly recovering from loss of his right arm, and staying with his old commander Captain William Locker, by this time Lieutenant-Governor of the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich. Nelson gave Abbot two sittings there and the resulting oil study, known as the 'Kilgraston sketch' from its later ownership by Francis Grant of Kilgraston, is now in the British portraits collection at Compton Verney, Warwickshire. Abbott is reported to have based up to about 40 subsequent versions on it and Nelson himself gave the first finished one to Locker. This is still in private hands but is much rougher in finish than the present example and many later ones. The first replica of it was painted for Lady Nelson and has been in the National Portrait Gallery since 1874. Both these probably also date to 1797.

The date of Nelson's KB, 27 September 1797, and his departure for the Mediterranean in April 1798 also suggest the span within which this version was painted, while he was Rear-Admiral of the Blue and before the Battle of the Nile - which brought further decorations and promotion to Rear-Admiral of the Red in February 1799. His rank at the time of painting is confirmed by the flags of the ship in the lower left corner (blue at the mizzen). The fact that it is the third version (excluding the original study) suggests a 1798 date and it was published as a mezzotint, engraved by Richard Earlom, in December that year. The inscription on this print records that Nelson had already presented the oil to his agent, Alexander Davison, whose grandson, Sir Walter Davison, bequeathed it to Greenwich Hospital in 1873. See also BHC2888 and BHC2889. [updated PvdM 11/10]