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Notes
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Coming from a modest background, the Nelson of popular imagination was a humane commander who had the common touch and ignored the divisions of rank or faction. In this portrait of 1798–1799 he appears with one of his midshipmen at the moment of victory during the famous Battle of the Nile (1798). The younger man hands over the French admiral's sword wrapped in a captured French flag. In the background two battle-scarred ships fly white ensigns hoisted over French tricolours under a dramatic stormy sky. The portrait, which commemorates one of the most decisive victories in English naval history, is based on life studies made by Guy Head, who met Nelson in Naples soon after the event. The portrait shows Nelson's earlier loss of an arm but the artist has taken the licence of showing Nelson otherwise unscathed, though in truth his forehead should have been bandaged as a result of the serious wounds he received.
Title
Horatio Nelson
Date
1798–1799
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 222.9 x W 168.9 cm
Accession number
5101
Acquisition method
Purchased, 1976
Work type
Painting
National Portrait Gallery, London
St Martin’s Place, London, Greater London WC2H 0HE England
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