Charles Brooking 1723-1759

Born in Deptford in 1723 Brooking remains one of the finest marine painters of the eighteenth century.  He is thought to have been largely self taught, and the son of a Charles Brooking who was a painter and decorator at Greenwich Hospital between 1729 and 1736.  Brooking did not achieve significant financial success until the final decade of his life.  By this stage he had developed a mature style,  and in 1754 he acquired Taylor White as his patron, Treasurer of the Foundling Hospital, who commissioned him to paint his largest canvas Flagship before the wind under easy sail.

Brooking's style was strongly influenced by Dutch marine painting of the seventeenth century, in particular the Van de Veldes and de Vlieger.  Although this work is likely to have been painted in the 1750s Brooking has deliberately introduced vessels of an earlier era.  The composition is dominated by a forty gun man-of-war.  She is flying the pre-1707 ensign, and the design of the stern, and the fact that she carries a big lateen mizzen, all indicate a vessel circa 1680.  The composition relates closely to a canvas in Leeds Art Gallery, Temple Newsham House (see David Joel, Charles Brooking, 2000, p.128, no.39A).  The composition of the present work is identical to the Leeds canvas, except for the addition of the pier in the left hand corner.  Brooking was clearly drawn to this composition since he made a number of variants (David Joel, ibid, nos.39B, 39C, 39D).  The serenity of a ship in a calm, combined with the fins of two porpoises cutting the waves in the foreground and the gentle puffs of smoke from the cannons in the backgroun, all exemplify Brooking's ability to capture both the elegance and the might of the English navy. 

We are grateful to David Joel for confirming the authenticity of this work.