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Notes
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A half-length portrait to left in a painted oval wearing Captain's, over three years, full-dress uniform, 1774–1787. The background consists of blue sky and loosely painted clouds. The painting is a version of BHC2976, which shows Locker dressed in civilian clothes, which may have been earlier, although he appears younger in the face in the present example. While in command of the 'Lowestoffe', 32 guns, in 1777, he became a firm friend of his lieutenant, Horatio Nelson, a friendship which continued until Locker's death. Locker was interested in art and befriended artists such as the marine painter, Dominic Serres, who also painted his portrait. Indeed, as Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital from 1793, he conceived the idea of a naval picture gallery in the Painted Hall.
Stuart was an American painter who was also active in England and Ireland. He was in London from 1775 until 1787, where early in 1775, he entered the studio of Benjamin West, 1738–1820, for whom he painted drapery and finished portraits. Stuart exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in the spring of 1787. He maintained an expensive London establishment, and had considerable success as a fashionable portrait painter to both English and American sitters who found themselves in London. In the spring of 1793, he returned to America, leaving behind scores of unfinished canvases. He subsequently lived and worked in New York, and then Philadelphia, where George Washington posed for him during 1795. He moved to Boston in 1805 where he remained for the rest of his life, both painting and advising fellow artists.
Title
Captain William Locker (1731–1800)
Date
c.1785
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 76.2 x W 63.5 cm
Accession number
BHC2846
Acquisition method
National Maritime Museum (Greenwich Hospital Collection)
Work type
Painting