John Christian Schetky (1778-1874)

The capture of the Guillaume Tell; The last of the wooden walls; Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland; and Two fishing boats in a storm

Details

John Christian Schetky (1778-1874)
The capture of the Guillaume Tell; The last of the wooden walls; Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland; and Two fishing boats in a storm
the first signed and inscribed 'J. C. Schetky - March 15th. 1864 Marine painter in ordinary to her Majesty The capture of the french Man of war - William Tell -(84 guns) by a British squadron' (on the mount); the second with inscription 'The last of the wooden walls by Schetky oetat 87 pen and ink 1864' (on an old label attached to the reverse of the frame); and the fourth inscribed 'Lord Scarbro - His Lordship picking up the crews of the crews of two fishing boats just before they went down (in the Baltic)
pencil, pen and brown ink, brown wash
10 x 14 in. (26 x 37.5 cm.); and smaller
a set of four (4)

Lot Essay

Regarding The Capture of the 'Guillaume Tell': in 1798, following the British victory at the Battle of the Nile, two French ships managed to escape capture by passing through the British blockade. They were called the Generis and Guillaume Tell. The Generis was later captured by Horatio Nelson and Lord Keith on 18th February 1800. The Guillaume Tell (84 gun ship), the subject of the drawing was captured by 3 ships under the command of Captain Sir Edward Berry. The capture occurred on 31st March 1800, just off the coast of Malta. This drawing was probably a preparatory sketch for an oil of the same subject by the artist.

We are grateful to Pieter van der Merwe for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.

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