One of the most famous of all portraits of Lord Nelson, this picture by Lemuel Francis Abbott shows him as a hero in the full glory of his military decorations. The original picture hangs in Britain’s National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

With a chestful of gold medals and a spectacular “chelengk” in his hat (a plume of triumph with 13 diamond-encrusted sprays representing the French ships at the Battle of Nile set around a rotating central diamond, given by the Turkish Sultan) Nelson – the superstar of his day – cut a dashing but odd and somewhat controversial figure,, as decorations were not as usual in military life as we they are today. Some other naval officers derided him for wearing them.

Dr. Colin White, the renowned Nelsonian scholar and author of The Nelson A to Z, notes that by the end of his life Nelson was entitled to wear the stars of four orders of knighthood and two official gold medals seen here on ribbons around his neck – the King’s Naval Gold Medals for the Battles of Cape St Vincent and the Nile, which were among the first British named campaign medals ever issued, rare and very highly prized.

Nelson’s wore his stars on his left breast – the premier decoration was the star of the Order of the Bath, a high British decoration. The other three stars were all unusual – the King of Naples gave Nelson and his Nile captains the specially created Order of St Ferdinand and Merit (a non-Catholic order of knighthood) while for the same battle The Sultan of Turkey gave Nelson the special, new and non-Muslim Order of the Crescent. The Order of St Joachim was a private German order of chivalry.

This print is available from our webshop.

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The “Jolie Brise” was built in 1913 in Le Havre, as a French Pilot boat. In 1925 it won the first Fastnet Race, and again in 1929 and 1930. In 1932 her Skipper won thr Blue Water Medal for a daring rescue of the crew of the “Adriana” which caught fire during the Bermuda Race. The “Jolie Brise” was winner of the Tall Ships Race in 1980, 1986 and 2000.

The first British ocean race was inaugurated in 1925 and was called the Fastnet Race because the course ran from the Isle of Wight, down the Channel and across part of the Atlantic to the lighthouse on the Fastnet Rock, off the southwestern Irish coast, before returning to Plymouth. The race, which has been called the Grand National of ocean racing, was started by a group of hardy sailors in 1925.

Only seven yachts started the 605 mile course on August 15th, which was won by the “Jolie Brise”, in a time of 6 days, 2 hours and 45 minutes, having ghosted through calms and fog. Not so lucky were the trailing boats, which got caught in a gale neat the end of the race. All eventually made it to safety, but their rough treatment was a forestate of th perils that the Fastnet race would offer future contestants.

The painting shows the “Jolie Brise” rounding the Fastnet Rock at 7.50 p.m. on AUgust 19th, 1925, leading “Gull” by 40 minutes, and “Fulmar” by 1 hour 25 minutes. Ass she rounded, the lighthouse keeper informed them of their leading position by semaphore.

“The dramatic image of the Jolie Brise rounding the Fastnet Light had been on my mind for some time, but it was the events of the year 2000 that spurred me into committing it to canvas. Whilst doing the research for the painting I had the opportunity to go on board and get the feel of this historic ocean thoroughbred and I hope that I have managed to reflect the spirit that I felt in her.”

We have this great limited edition print of 850 signed by Rodney Charman available now from our webshop. Other prints from Rodney are also available.

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With the 202nd anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar coming later this week, it’s a good time to have another look at one of the finest, large-scale modern maritime paintings.

The picture is Steven Dews’ Battle of Trafalgar painted over 7 years with the aid of several maritime museum curators to be released in 2005 for the 200th anniversary of this momentous battle.

The original oil painting made £95,000 at Bonham’s auction in their famoust London auction rooms. Since then, series of fabulous prints has been on sale and Artists Harbour is proud to say that we have been one of the most successful sellers of the large canvas print,1676mm x 1016mm(66-inches by 40-inches) which effectively from a distance of 1 metre gives you a £100,000 picture for around £1,000.

We accompany the large print with three historic pictures that illuminate the wonderful Dews canvas.

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At noon on Wednesday, 10th April 1912, the White Star liner R.M.S. Titanic cast her lines from the White Star Dock and began what was to become the most famous maiden voyage in history.

With Captain Edward J. Smith on the bridge and towed by the tug ‘Neptune’, assisted by tugs ‘Hercules’, ‘Albert Edward’, ‘Hector’, ‘Ajax’ and ‘Vulcan’, the huge liner was manoeuvred into the River Test.

Rodney Charman has lived all his life near Southampton and has vivid memories of seeing the great liners ‘Queen Mary’, ‘Queen Elizabeth’ and ‘Mauretania’ from the trains that passed very close to the dry docks there. He also remembers “going on a passenger ferry to view the ‘SS United States’ as she arrived on her maiden voyage. I toured the ‘Queen Mary’ when she was at the Ocean Dock, as the White Star Dock was renamed, and have made a few voyages from Southampton Docks”.

Rodney’s painting shows the ‘Titanic’ as she is edged away from the dockside, the ‘Neptune’ towing and tugs ‘Albert Edward’, ‘Hercules’ and ‘Vulcan’ at her bow. On the left of the painting are the White Star liner ‘Majestic’, and the American Line steamers ‘Philadelphia’ and ‘St. Louis’, each in its day the greatest liner in the world, now dwarfed by the enormous ‘Titanic’. The three liners had had their voyages cancelled due to a coal strike, and their coal and many of their crew were transferred to the ‘Titanic’. In the background can be seen the Southwestern Hotel where many of the passengers stayed on the eve of the voyage.

This limited edition print of 850 is available in our webshop where you can also find more artworks from Rodney Charman.

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The World’s First Battleship & Britain’s Last Battleship

Before the HMS Warrior was restored to her full glory and installed as one of the great attractions of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard on the south coast, she was sent to Hartlepool for complete renovation. While there, local artist John Wigston virtually had her to himself as an artist.

John is a maritime artist of some distinction. A dozen of his paintings were hung in the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner. He painted a series of fine pictures of HMS Warrior and the men who served in her working below decks.

HMS Warrior is a naval icon - the first ironclad, propeller-and-sail driven warship. When she was built she was the greatest warship in the world, impervious to the firepower of all other warships. She revolutionised naval warfare, was the ultimate weapon of the mid-19th Century and formed the blueprint for the great dreadnoughts that followed and whose great grey steel successors dominated war at sea throughout the 20th century.

HMS Vanguard was Britain’s last and biggest battleship. It was commissionned in 1946 and is famous for being the only British battleship “never to fire her guns in anger”.

For more artworks by John Wigston, go to his page in our webshop.

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