Charles Brooking (1723-1759), "An English Flagship Under Easy Sail in a Moderate Breeze," ca. 1750. To the left, a two-decker with the red flag of the Vice-Admiral of the Red at the foremast. On the right, a ketch is before the wind under easy sail, her staysail set and main and mizzen topsails lowered almost to the caps. The flagship is perhaps the ship of the Honorable John Byng, the only Vice-Admiral of the Red at sea at the time of this painting. All pictures are courtesy Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.
scenes, ('the tranquil marine'), portraits of individual ships, the depiction of battle scenes, panoramic views of coasts, harbors, and ships and the rage of natural elements in a storm. Examples of all of these can be found in the Mellon Collection but they were mostly painted by English artists who, from the first, looked to the Dutch for inspiration. There are also examples by the two Dutch artists, Willem van de Velde the Elder and the Younger, whose arrival in England in 1673 in effect founded the national school. The aptly named Isaac Sailmaker painted a bird's eye veiw of Barbados which, with its high viewpoint and fantastic whales looks back to sixteenth century landscapes, seventeenth century maps and the fabulous tales of imaginative voyagers for its quaint vision. The van de Veldes, on the other hand, in their accuracy of detail as well as their ability to render the extremes of natural effects were an important influence on the first two great English seascape artists, Samuel Scott and Charles Brooking. SEA HISTORY, FALL 1978
Samuel Scott (ca. 170113-1772), "A Small Man-of-War Close-Hauled in a Breeze with Other Ships," 1753. The Union Jack at the main topmasthead of the ship signifies the presence of the Commander-in-Chief on board. Normally, the ship would have also flown a pendant at the mast head.