Portrait of Rear-Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson, K.B.

The innumerable images of Lord Nelson which have been so widely admired, copied and reproduced ever since the Admiral's rise to public prominence after the Battle of Cape St. Vincent (14th February 1797) are usually those by or after Lemuel Abbott, Sir William Beechey, Arthur Devis and John Hoppner. Many other artists, however, tried their hand at capturing the likeness of 'the most famous man of his time' and one of these lesser known painters was Daniel Orme of Holles Street, Cavendish Square. Although primarily a miniaturist, Orme conceived the idea of a large tableau entitled "Nelson receiving the surrender of the San Josef at the battle of St. Vincent" almost as soon as the news of the great victory and Nelson's part in it reached London. Finally completed in 1799 - and engraved by Orme himself in 1800 - the work was widely acclaimed when exhibited but, in the meantime, led to the publication of a small oval stipple which Orme had worked up from his preliminary drawing for Nelson's head as it appeared in the tableau. This small stipple engraving, published in 1798 on the first anniversary of the battle of Cape St. Vincent, proved a runaway success, so much so that Lady Nelson wrote to her husband: "Orme must have made a great deal of money; the little picture he published of you he has sold beyond description."

The unusual oil portrait offered in this lot seems, in turn, to have been worked up from the popular stipple engraving of February 1798 although it clearly post-dates the Battle of the Nile (1st August 1798) since it also shows Nelson wearing both of his two early gold medals [for St. Vincent and the Nile], in addition to the breast star of the Turkish Order of the Crescent, another of his 'Nile' rewards. An undeniably attractive though much less familiar image of Nelson, this work can clearly be regarded as a valuable addition to the iconography of the greatest figure in British naval history.