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Lot Essay
The severe storm which blew up on the night of the battle of Trafalgar (21st October 1805) and continued for several days thereafter resulted in the sinking or enforced scuttling of almost all the captured enemy ships, most notably the huge Spanish flagship Santísima Trinidad. Shown here heeling over to port as she wallows, practically unmanageable, in the heavy swell, she was not only the biggest ship in the world and the only four-decker in existence but also the largest wooden warship ever constructed. Mounting 140 guns and flagship to Rear-Admiral Don H. de Cisneros, she was engaged by and surrendered to H.M.S. Prince at Trafalgar and eventually foundered in the heavy weather on 24th October. As if to emphasise her humiliation, she is depicted with her national ensign flying below a confident ‘Union Jack’, the universal symbol of a captured enemy prize in time of war.
Although viewed from a different perspective, this work by Buttersworth has many similarities to the last in a series of three major 'Trafalgar' oils executed by W.J. Huggins for King William IV between 1834 and 1837 and which now hang in St. James’s Palace.
We are grateful to Michael Naxton for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Although viewed from a different perspective, this work by Buttersworth has many similarities to the last in a series of three major 'Trafalgar' oils executed by W.J. Huggins for King William IV between 1834 and 1837 and which now hang in St. James’s Palace.
We are grateful to Michael Naxton for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.