John Cleveley the Elder

With Richard Green, London;
From whom acquired by the present owner. 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has an old glue lining. The lining is still effective, and the paint layer is stable. The extensive details throughout the composition are in beautiful condition, and no weakness or abrasion is evident even in the finest lines of the rigging. In the river, all of the vessels and activity on the far bank of the show no retouches. In the sky, there is a complex horizontal restoration above and slightly to the right of the newly launched vessel on the left side, which measures about 5 inches. There is another group of small retouches around the tall mast with the thin flag in the center right. There is another small group of retouches in the upper center of the sky. For a work of this scale and period, the dearth of retouches is notable. The work should be hung as is.
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This magnificent and beautifully preserved picture is one of at least six variant versions by Cleveley celebrating the launching of Royal Naval vessels at Deptford Dockyard, on the Thames, in the 1750s. British naval prowess was rising at this period and such events were invariably great public occasions. The ‘King’s Yard’ at Deptford – the second oldest after Portsmouth – had been founded by Henry VIII in 1513. Trinity House was also founded, with its original headquarters at Deptford, in 1514. Deptford Dockyard became a major center of naval construction and maintenance thereafter, and center of a sizable town based on related activities. In 1698 Tsar Peter the Great of Russia spent three months there studying shipbuilding during his ‘Great Embassy’ to western Europe. From the 1660s Deptford was also particularly associated with building and maintenance of royal yachts, and by the early 1700s the new Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich just downstream was the main point for their use from London. This painting shows a two-decker – probably of about 64 guns ­– being launched or, more accurately, ‘floated-out’ from the Deptford double dry-dock (which could accommodate two ships end to end). It is flying launching flags, including the fouled anchor of the Admiralty and the Royal Standard. To the right two other ships are under construction on building slips, and a yacht can be seen beyond, moored beside timber sheds in the small Deptford wet dock. The large building at center is the Grand Storehouse (begun in 1712), while at far left is the Master Shipwright's house of 1704, which still stands today. Vessels lying off, in the river, include official barges, a cutter-rigged Admiralty yacht at center, and another two-decker (also of about 64 guns) at far right, riding high since it is not carrying its armament. The identity of the vessel being launched is uncertain and it may be the Kent, the Berwick or the Hampton Court.

John Cleveley excelled in painting such scenes. London-born in about 1712, he trained as a joiner and boat-builder before becoming a naval shipwright at Deptford and, from the 1740s, a self-taught painter and exhibitor of shipping and shipbuilding subjects, especially of Deptford. While his success with a nautical clientele was based on his detailed knowledge of the subject, his representation of the teeming life of the river may have been influenced by Canaletto, who worked in England from 1746 to 1755 (apart from short returns to his native Venice). Like Canaletto, Cleveley transcended the topographical demands of his subjects and produced atmospheric compositions of considerable grandeur. He may have spent some time at sea as a ship’s carpenter and, at the end of his life, he was briefly seconded to work on the Victory (Nelson’s later flagship) at Chatham, but his family home remained King’s Yard Row, Deptford, where he died in 1777. His twin sons John and Robert, both also marine artists, were born there in 1747 and his widow Sarah continued there to her own death in 1798.  A younger son, James, was carpenter in Captain Cook’s Resolution (1776–80)

A near-identical composition, painted a year before the present example, was sold at Sotheby's, London, on 12 July 1995, lot 7. There are four other currently known variants, with different ships, staffage and varying dates. The present one appears to be among the best preserved, along with that of 1757 in the National Maritime Museum collection at Royal Museums Greenwich (BHC3602) which fictitiously includes the Royal George (launched 1756) at the floating-out of the Cambridge in 1755. The others are in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, and in London (Science Museum and Government Art Collection).

We are grateful to Pieter van der Merwe of the Royal Museums Greenwich, Greenwich for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.