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Lot Essay
This portrait of Britain’s most celebrated naval commander by Lemuel Francis Abbott is the prime version of a work that arguably stands as the most widely recognised image in the whole Nelson iconography. Painted for Captain William Locker in 1797, while Nelson was convalescing at the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich following the loss of his right arm in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it served as the prototype for the remarkable number of replicas – more than forty – that Abbott produced for Nelson’s naval colleagues, family and friends. These copies consolidated the composition’s status as the definitive likeness of Nelson. Retained by Locker’s family, descending to his grandson, the poet Frederick Locker-Lampson (see Provenance), the present picture has appeared at auction only once before, in 1979, when it was offered in these Rooms and acquired by the present owner.
Nelson is shown in rear-admiral’s uniform wearing the Star and Ribbon of the Bath and the Naval Gold Medal awarded for his victory at the Battle of St Vincent (1797). His empty right sleeve is pinned across his chest. In later versions Abbott tended to indicate the ribbons that closed the right sleeve, which had been slit to accommodate the dressings. The amputated stump became infected, leaving Nelson with ‘scarcely any intermission of pain, day or night, for three months after his return to England’ (R. Southey, The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson, London, 1813, p. 115).
A note on the reverse of the canvas, written by Frederick Locker-Lampson in 1872, states that this portrait was the first of two Nelson sat for during his time at Greenwich, the second being the picture given to Lady Nelson, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London (inv. no. NPG 394). A likeness known as the Kilgraston sketch is generally thought to have preceded both finished portraits and was retained by Abbott for use when executing the later replicas. Unlike the Kilgraston sketch, the compromised state of which is well documented, the present canvas, despite some restoration (largely confined to the background), remains ‘in excellent condition and conveys probably the best idea of what Nelson looked like during the weeks following his excruciating amputation before the wound healed’ (Walker, op. cit., p. 41). As Walker further observed: 'in the Locker portrait of Nelson he [Abbott] achieved an understanding of the great man that he was not able to repeat’ (ibid.).
Born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, on 29 September 1758, Horatio Nelson was the son of a clergyman, yet it was his uncle, Maurice Suckling, a captain in the Royal Navy, who shaped his future. In 1770, aged twelve, Nelson joined his uncle aboard the Raisonnable during a dispute between Britain and Spain over the Falkland Islands; by 1777 he was appointed second-lieutenant under Captain William Locker on the Lowestoffe. Nelson, then barely nineteen, served with Locker for fifteen months. That same year Locker commissioned a portrait of his young protégé from John Francis Rigaud (1742–1810), a work not completed until at least 1781, after Nelson returned to England as a captain (Greenwich, National Maritime Museum; fig. 2). Nelson never forgot Locker’s influence. On 9 February 1799, he wrote to him:
'I have been your scholar; it is you who taught me to board a Frenchman by your conduct when in the Experiment; it is you who always told me 'Lay a Frenchman close and you will beat him;’ and my only merit in my profession is being a good scholar. Our friendship will never end but with my life, but you have always been too partial to me.' (N.H. Nicolas, The Dispatches and Letters of Vice-Admiral Nelson, London, 1845, III, p. 260).
Locker’s interest in art is reflected in his friendship with the marine painter Dominic Serres. In 1769 Serres painted a vivid portrait of the newly promoted captain on board The Queen (New Haven, Yale Center for British Art). As Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital from 1793, Locker conceived the idea of a naval picture gallery in the Painted Hall, a project realised by his son, Edward Hawke Locker, in 1823–24. Locker also sat to Abbott for the bust-length portrait now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (c.1795–1800; BHC2845; fig. 1), presumably executed while Abbott was working on the two portraits of Nelson.
At the time of this commission, Abbott was at the peak of his artistic career. After studying under Francis Hayman (c.1708-1776) and possibly Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797), the Leicestershire-born artist established a successful and prolific portrait practice in London. His patrons were mainly drawn from the professional classes, particularly the Navy. By 1797, he had already painted several naval officers of distinction, including Sir Robert Calder (1744⁄5-1818). Abbott’s portraits of Nelson would be both his greatest artistic legacy and his principal financial prop during the last four or five years of his life. However, Abbott's mental health had begun to deteriorate, and by 1798 the artist was certified insane and treated by Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833), physician to Bethlem Hospital and to King George III (1738-1820). Nonetheless, Abbott continued to paint and exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1800, two years before his death at the age of just forty-two.
Nelson is shown in rear-admiral’s uniform wearing the Star and Ribbon of the Bath and the Naval Gold Medal awarded for his victory at the Battle of St Vincent (1797). His empty right sleeve is pinned across his chest. In later versions Abbott tended to indicate the ribbons that closed the right sleeve, which had been slit to accommodate the dressings. The amputated stump became infected, leaving Nelson with ‘scarcely any intermission of pain, day or night, for three months after his return to England’ (R. Southey, The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson, London, 1813, p. 115).
A note on the reverse of the canvas, written by Frederick Locker-Lampson in 1872, states that this portrait was the first of two Nelson sat for during his time at Greenwich, the second being the picture given to Lady Nelson, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London (inv. no. NPG 394). A likeness known as the Kilgraston sketch is generally thought to have preceded both finished portraits and was retained by Abbott for use when executing the later replicas. Unlike the Kilgraston sketch, the compromised state of which is well documented, the present canvas, despite some restoration (largely confined to the background), remains ‘in excellent condition and conveys probably the best idea of what Nelson looked like during the weeks following his excruciating amputation before the wound healed’ (Walker, op. cit., p. 41). As Walker further observed: 'in the Locker portrait of Nelson he [Abbott] achieved an understanding of the great man that he was not able to repeat’ (ibid.).
Born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, on 29 September 1758, Horatio Nelson was the son of a clergyman, yet it was his uncle, Maurice Suckling, a captain in the Royal Navy, who shaped his future. In 1770, aged twelve, Nelson joined his uncle aboard the Raisonnable during a dispute between Britain and Spain over the Falkland Islands; by 1777 he was appointed second-lieutenant under Captain William Locker on the Lowestoffe. Nelson, then barely nineteen, served with Locker for fifteen months. That same year Locker commissioned a portrait of his young protégé from John Francis Rigaud (1742–1810), a work not completed until at least 1781, after Nelson returned to England as a captain (Greenwich, National Maritime Museum; fig. 2). Nelson never forgot Locker’s influence. On 9 February 1799, he wrote to him:
'I have been your scholar; it is you who taught me to board a Frenchman by your conduct when in the Experiment; it is you who always told me 'Lay a Frenchman close and you will beat him;’ and my only merit in my profession is being a good scholar. Our friendship will never end but with my life, but you have always been too partial to me.' (N.H. Nicolas, The Dispatches and Letters of Vice-Admiral Nelson, London, 1845, III, p. 260).
Locker’s interest in art is reflected in his friendship with the marine painter Dominic Serres. In 1769 Serres painted a vivid portrait of the newly promoted captain on board The Queen (New Haven, Yale Center for British Art). As Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital from 1793, Locker conceived the idea of a naval picture gallery in the Painted Hall, a project realised by his son, Edward Hawke Locker, in 1823–24. Locker also sat to Abbott for the bust-length portrait now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (c.1795–1800; BHC2845; fig. 1), presumably executed while Abbott was working on the two portraits of Nelson.
At the time of this commission, Abbott was at the peak of his artistic career. After studying under Francis Hayman (c.1708-1776) and possibly Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797), the Leicestershire-born artist established a successful and prolific portrait practice in London. His patrons were mainly drawn from the professional classes, particularly the Navy. By 1797, he had already painted several naval officers of distinction, including Sir Robert Calder (1744⁄5-1818). Abbott’s portraits of Nelson would be both his greatest artistic legacy and his principal financial prop during the last four or five years of his life. However, Abbott's mental health had begun to deteriorate, and by 1798 the artist was certified insane and treated by Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833), physician to Bethlem Hospital and to King George III (1738-1820). Nonetheless, Abbott continued to paint and exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1800, two years before his death at the age of just forty-two.