Lot Essay
This exceptionally fine work is one of a small group of pictures painted by Cleveley in the 1750s to celebrate the launching of great Men-o'-War on the Thames.
The H.M.S. Medway, one of the last 60-gun two-deckers destined for the Royal Navy was, ordered in the spring of 1751 and her keel was laid in Deptford dockyard on 13 June of the same year. Built to an earlier design modified by Surveyor Allin, she measured 150 feet long overall with a 43 foot beam and weighed 1,191 tons. After nearly four years on the stocks she was launched on 14 February 1755, the only ship of her size launched that year, and she was commissioned with a full crew of 420 men.
With the outbreak of the Seven Years War (1756-63) she entered service, and her first recorded action was the capture of the French privateer, Duc d'Aquitaine, off Ushant, on 30 May 1757. Of far more strategic importance, however, was her participation in Admiral Hawke's highly successful operations off the Isle d'Aix when, on 4 - 5 April 1758, he intercepted and drove ashore a vital armed convoy bound for North America, the destruction of which greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of France's territorial possessions in Canada.
When England and France found themselves once more in conflict during the American War of Independence (1775-83) the Medway took part in three large, but indecisive, fleet actions in the West Indies: on 6 July 1779 off Grenada; and on 17 April and 15 May 1780 off Martinique. When peace was finally restored the Medway's active service came to an end and she became a receiving ship at Plymouth in June 1787. She was eventually broken up in 1811.
Deptford, strategically located near the Royal Palace of Greenwich, became an important naval dockyard in the reign of King Henry VIII who built the Royal Dock there. By the late 17th Century it had become the most important naval dockyard in England and its naval importance continued into the 18th Century. The large building in the centre of the composition is the Grand Storehouse and to the left is the Master Shipwright's house, built in 1704, which still stands.
Cleveley was born at Southwark but spent most of his life at Deptford where he is recorded as living with his wife, Sarah, at King's Yard Row, at the time of the birth of his twin sons Robert and John in 1747. He died there in 1777.
This picture well illustrates Cleveley's mastery of the detail of the construction of ships which he seems to have learnt partly from his own experience as a shipwright. His observation of people gathered on the dock to watch the launch, events which had become very popular in the 18th Century, also indicates the profound influence of Canaletto who worked in England intermittently between 1746 and 1755.
A later autograph variant of this type of composition, of circa 1757, which measures 41¾ x 70½ in. (106 x 179 cm.) is in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut (M. Cormack, A Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1985, no. B 1981.25.108).
A similar composition, showing the launch of a different boat, signed and dated 1754 and measuring 42¾ x 71 in. (108.5 x 180 cm.) was sold at Sotheby's, 12 July 1995, lot 7 (£180,000). A similarly composed picture, HMS St. Albans floated at Deptford, conceived from a slightly different angle, and without the two larger boats in the foreground, signed and dated 1747 and measuring 36 x 62 in. (91.5 x 157.5 cm) is in the National Maritime Museum (BHC1046), together with a similarly composed picture of HMS Royal George at Deptford showing the launch of HMS Cambridge, signed and dated 1757, measuring 48 x74 in. (122 x 188 cm.), (BHC3602).
The H.M.S. Medway, one of the last 60-gun two-deckers destined for the Royal Navy was, ordered in the spring of 1751 and her keel was laid in Deptford dockyard on 13 June of the same year. Built to an earlier design modified by Surveyor Allin, she measured 150 feet long overall with a 43 foot beam and weighed 1,191 tons. After nearly four years on the stocks she was launched on 14 February 1755, the only ship of her size launched that year, and she was commissioned with a full crew of 420 men.
With the outbreak of the Seven Years War (1756-63) she entered service, and her first recorded action was the capture of the French privateer, Duc d'Aquitaine, off Ushant, on 30 May 1757. Of far more strategic importance, however, was her participation in Admiral Hawke's highly successful operations off the Isle d'Aix when, on 4 - 5 April 1758, he intercepted and drove ashore a vital armed convoy bound for North America, the destruction of which greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of France's territorial possessions in Canada.
When England and France found themselves once more in conflict during the American War of Independence (1775-83) the Medway took part in three large, but indecisive, fleet actions in the West Indies: on 6 July 1779 off Grenada; and on 17 April and 15 May 1780 off Martinique. When peace was finally restored the Medway's active service came to an end and she became a receiving ship at Plymouth in June 1787. She was eventually broken up in 1811.
Deptford, strategically located near the Royal Palace of Greenwich, became an important naval dockyard in the reign of King Henry VIII who built the Royal Dock there. By the late 17th Century it had become the most important naval dockyard in England and its naval importance continued into the 18th Century. The large building in the centre of the composition is the Grand Storehouse and to the left is the Master Shipwright's house, built in 1704, which still stands.
Cleveley was born at Southwark but spent most of his life at Deptford where he is recorded as living with his wife, Sarah, at King's Yard Row, at the time of the birth of his twin sons Robert and John in 1747. He died there in 1777.
This picture well illustrates Cleveley's mastery of the detail of the construction of ships which he seems to have learnt partly from his own experience as a shipwright. His observation of people gathered on the dock to watch the launch, events which had become very popular in the 18th Century, also indicates the profound influence of Canaletto who worked in England intermittently between 1746 and 1755.
A later autograph variant of this type of composition, of circa 1757, which measures 41¾ x 70½ in. (106 x 179 cm.) is in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut (M. Cormack, A Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1985, no. B 1981.25.108).
A similar composition, showing the launch of a different boat, signed and dated 1754 and measuring 42¾ x 71 in. (108.5 x 180 cm.) was sold at Sotheby's, 12 July 1995, lot 7 (£180,000). A similarly composed picture, HMS St. Albans floated at Deptford, conceived from a slightly different angle, and without the two larger boats in the foreground, signed and dated 1747 and measuring 36 x 62 in. (91.5 x 157.5 cm) is in the National Maritime Museum (BHC1046), together with a similarly composed picture of HMS Royal George at Deptford showing the launch of HMS Cambridge, signed and dated 1757, measuring 48 x74 in. (122 x 188 cm.), (BHC3602).