Lot Essay
This watercolour is a posthumous representation of Captain William Locker, painted by Wilkie for Locker's son Edward Hawke Locker on the basis of a drawing by the latter; in 1830 Wilkie wrote to the son saying that 'the father and daughter are sketched in'. An oil painting was probably intended but the number of the 1840 exhibit suggests that it was this finished watercolour of ten years earlier.
Captain William Locker was born in 1731 and served mainly in the Royal Navy from 1747 on, though he spent the years 1748 until 1755 with the East India Company in India and China. In 1777 he was in the West Indies where the young Horatio Nelson served under him, and they became correspondents and close friends. Locker's health collapsed in 1779 and from 1793 he was Lieutenant-governer of Greenwich Hospital, dying there on 26 December 1800. He was an 'amateur of the arts' and in 1795 suggested the creation of a collection of naval portraits to be displayed in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, but the current political situation and war with France presented this from being followed up.
Captain William Locker's youngest son Edward Hawke Locker (1777-1849) continued the family connection with Greenwich Hospital, becoming secretary in 1819 and one of the civil commissioners from 1826 until 1844. In 1823 he successfully revived his father's scheme for a collection of naval portraits. Wilkie is recorded as having visited the Hospital on 21 September 1823 and he first mentions Locker in a letter of the October of the same year.
Edward's second son Frederick (1821-1895), the poet and author of London Lyrics, took the additional name of Lampson in 1885 on the death of his second wife's father, Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, and went to live at Rowfant, where he built up and catalogued the Rowfant Library. He died there in 1895 leaving a daughter by his first wife and four children by his second. His book My Confidences was published in 1896.
There is a possibly related ink drawing of two figures by a fire in the Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham (repr. Scottish Art Review, vol. XIII, no. 2). The placing of the two figures in relation to the fireplace on the left is very close but the man does not wear Locker's distinctive cocked hat and is shown holding what looks like a sheet of paper. There is no figure bringing in refreshment on the right, nor pictures on the walls.
We are grateful to Professor Hamish Miles for his help in preparing this catalogue entry
Captain William Locker was born in 1731 and served mainly in the Royal Navy from 1747 on, though he spent the years 1748 until 1755 with the East India Company in India and China. In 1777 he was in the West Indies where the young Horatio Nelson served under him, and they became correspondents and close friends. Locker's health collapsed in 1779 and from 1793 he was Lieutenant-governer of Greenwich Hospital, dying there on 26 December 1800. He was an 'amateur of the arts' and in 1795 suggested the creation of a collection of naval portraits to be displayed in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, but the current political situation and war with France presented this from being followed up.
Captain William Locker's youngest son Edward Hawke Locker (1777-1849) continued the family connection with Greenwich Hospital, becoming secretary in 1819 and one of the civil commissioners from 1826 until 1844. In 1823 he successfully revived his father's scheme for a collection of naval portraits. Wilkie is recorded as having visited the Hospital on 21 September 1823 and he first mentions Locker in a letter of the October of the same year.
Edward's second son Frederick (1821-1895), the poet and author of London Lyrics, took the additional name of Lampson in 1885 on the death of his second wife's father, Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, and went to live at Rowfant, where he built up and catalogued the Rowfant Library. He died there in 1895 leaving a daughter by his first wife and four children by his second. His book My Confidences was published in 1896.
There is a possibly related ink drawing of two figures by a fire in the Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham (repr. Scottish Art Review, vol. XIII, no. 2). The placing of the two figures in relation to the fireplace on the left is very close but the man does not wear Locker's distinctive cocked hat and is shown holding what looks like a sheet of paper. There is no figure bringing in refreshment on the right, nor pictures on the walls.
We are grateful to Professor Hamish Miles for his help in preparing this catalogue entry