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Lot Essay
Charles Heathcote Tatham began his career as clerk to the architect and surveyor Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1753-1827), before training under Henry Holland (1745-1806), architect to the Prince of Wales, where he contributed to the designs for Carlton House, Pall Mall and Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, as well as designing the ornamental decorations for the royal boxes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He travelled to Rome in 1794 with the architect and painter Joseph Gandy (1771-1843), where he spent two years, joining an illustrious artistic circle.
Tatham submitted designs for the proposed National Naval Monument of 1799, which forty years later, would eventually become Nelson's Column. Having heard nothing by 1802, he published his designs, dedicating them to the Earl of Carlisle, for whom he had designed interiors at Castle Howard. The present drawing is the most finished of his designs, a combination of the two other published ideas. Six other designs for the scheme, not related to the engraved versions, are in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.
In 1799, a proposal was put forward to build a National Monument to commemorate the naval victories and heroes of the French Wars. A subscription was launched and ‘artists of every description [were] hereby solicited to offer Designs for this purpose’. A variety of schemes were put forward, from simple columns to statues, to vast monuments and mausolea, and a variety of locations suggested. Confusion over exactly what form the monument should take and where it should be situated led, as well as insufficient funds and the collapse of Pitt’s government in 1801, to the shelving of the scheme and the return of the monies raised. The idea was re-visited on various occasions including in 1815, when Parliament voted funds for the completion of a ‘Naval Pillar’ to commemorate the victories in the recently ended French Wars. Finally space was made available outside the National Gallery, London in 1838 which led the following year to Nelson’s column, as designed by William Railton (1800-1877), finally becoming a reality.
Numerous other memorials, towers and statues were however erected throughout the country, following the Battle of Trafalgar, including Richard Westmacott’s larger than life statue of Nelson erected in 1809 in the Bull Ring, Birmingham as well as a series of columns erected from Glasgow in 1806, to Portsmouth, Dublin (see lot 108), Hereford and Great Yarmouth in 1817.
Tatham submitted designs for the proposed National Naval Monument of 1799, which forty years later, would eventually become Nelson's Column. Having heard nothing by 1802, he published his designs, dedicating them to the Earl of Carlisle, for whom he had designed interiors at Castle Howard. The present drawing is the most finished of his designs, a combination of the two other published ideas. Six other designs for the scheme, not related to the engraved versions, are in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.
In 1799, a proposal was put forward to build a National Monument to commemorate the naval victories and heroes of the French Wars. A subscription was launched and ‘artists of every description [were] hereby solicited to offer Designs for this purpose’. A variety of schemes were put forward, from simple columns to statues, to vast monuments and mausolea, and a variety of locations suggested. Confusion over exactly what form the monument should take and where it should be situated led, as well as insufficient funds and the collapse of Pitt’s government in 1801, to the shelving of the scheme and the return of the monies raised. The idea was re-visited on various occasions including in 1815, when Parliament voted funds for the completion of a ‘Naval Pillar’ to commemorate the victories in the recently ended French Wars. Finally space was made available outside the National Gallery, London in 1838 which led the following year to Nelson’s column, as designed by William Railton (1800-1877), finally becoming a reality.
Numerous other memorials, towers and statues were however erected throughout the country, following the Battle of Trafalgar, including Richard Westmacott’s larger than life statue of Nelson erected in 1809 in the Bull Ring, Birmingham as well as a series of columns erected from Glasgow in 1806, to Portsmouth, Dublin (see lot 108), Hereford and Great Yarmouth in 1817.