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Lot Essay
Shortly before his last and greatest victory, Lord Nelson wrote his most prophetic maxim:
'The business of the English Commander-in-Chief being first
to bring an Enemy's fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.'
It was written in response to the news that Admiral Villeneuve, the French commander, had managed to combine the Spanish fleet with his own to bring a formidable thirty-three ships under his control against Nelson's total of twenty-seven. To compensate for this serious lack of numerical superiority, Nelson had evolved his celebrated plan to break the enemy line in two places - a radical departure from conventional tactics - and activated it as soon as the opposing fleets sighted each other off Cape Trafalgar on the morning of 21st October 1805. With the British ships formed into two columns, Nelson himself led the Weather Division in Victory whilst Vice-Admiral Collingwood, his second-in-command, spearheaded the Leeward Division in Royal Sovereign, 100 guns.
As the fleets closed for action, Royal Sovereign drew ahead and battle was joined just before noon when the French 74-gun Fouguex opened fire. At 12.10 pm. Royal Sovereign broke through the line behind Santa Ana, the huge 112-gun flagship of Vice-Admiral de Alava, and raked her unprotected stern with a murderous double-shotted port broadside which, it was later acknowledged, killed or wounded nearly four hundred Spanish officers and crew. Putting Royal Sovereign's helm hard over, Collingwood then ranged up the lee side of the Spaniard to deliver the coup de grace. Simultaneously raking the Fougueux with her starboard broadside, Royal Sovereign thereupon began to pound Santa Ana in a furious engagement in which several French and Spanish vessels briefly joined before finding other targets for themselves. It is this moment which the artist has captured even though the small boat in the left foreground seems an unlikely witness to the drama whilst the towering stern of the Spanish galleon in the right foreground somehow has the appearance of a vessel from an earlier age. Within minutes of this scene, a more general melee had developed as the British ships following behind Royal Sovereign entered the fray although the duel between Collingwood and the Santa Ana took two hours to resolve and it was about 2.15 pm. before de Alava finally surrrendered.
Notwithstanding a little artistic licence at its margins, the main thrust of this hitherto unknown painting of Collingwood's flagship in action - fighting alone and flanked by enemy vessels on either side - is a worthy addition to the many memorable portrayals of Trafalgar, the one battle which inspired every contemporary marine artist and most of their successors.
Born in Greenwich and taught by James Duffield Harding, William Collingwood Smith exhibited both at the Royal Academy and the British Institution up until 1855. From then on he started painting exclusively in watercolour and exhibited with the Old Watercolour Society.
'The business of the English Commander-in-Chief being first
to bring an Enemy's fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.'
It was written in response to the news that Admiral Villeneuve, the French commander, had managed to combine the Spanish fleet with his own to bring a formidable thirty-three ships under his control against Nelson's total of twenty-seven. To compensate for this serious lack of numerical superiority, Nelson had evolved his celebrated plan to break the enemy line in two places - a radical departure from conventional tactics - and activated it as soon as the opposing fleets sighted each other off Cape Trafalgar on the morning of 21st October 1805. With the British ships formed into two columns, Nelson himself led the Weather Division in Victory whilst Vice-Admiral Collingwood, his second-in-command, spearheaded the Leeward Division in Royal Sovereign, 100 guns.
As the fleets closed for action, Royal Sovereign drew ahead and battle was joined just before noon when the French 74-gun Fouguex opened fire. At 12.10 pm. Royal Sovereign broke through the line behind Santa Ana, the huge 112-gun flagship of Vice-Admiral de Alava, and raked her unprotected stern with a murderous double-shotted port broadside which, it was later acknowledged, killed or wounded nearly four hundred Spanish officers and crew. Putting Royal Sovereign's helm hard over, Collingwood then ranged up the lee side of the Spaniard to deliver the coup de grace. Simultaneously raking the Fougueux with her starboard broadside, Royal Sovereign thereupon began to pound Santa Ana in a furious engagement in which several French and Spanish vessels briefly joined before finding other targets for themselves. It is this moment which the artist has captured even though the small boat in the left foreground seems an unlikely witness to the drama whilst the towering stern of the Spanish galleon in the right foreground somehow has the appearance of a vessel from an earlier age. Within minutes of this scene, a more general melee had developed as the British ships following behind Royal Sovereign entered the fray although the duel between Collingwood and the Santa Ana took two hours to resolve and it was about 2.15 pm. before de Alava finally surrrendered.
Notwithstanding a little artistic licence at its margins, the main thrust of this hitherto unknown painting of Collingwood's flagship in action - fighting alone and flanked by enemy vessels on either side - is a worthy addition to the many memorable portrayals of Trafalgar, the one battle which inspired every contemporary marine artist and most of their successors.
Born in Greenwich and taught by James Duffield Harding, William Collingwood Smith exhibited both at the Royal Academy and the British Institution up until 1855. From then on he started painting exclusively in watercolour and exhibited with the Old Watercolour Society.