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Notes
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Men-of-war are shown fitting-out in Portsmouth harbour. A number of figures on the wharf are engaged in activities associated with armaments. Serres was a well-born Frenchman from Gascony who ran away to sea in merchant service rather than follow family wish that he enter the Church. He probably arrived in England as a naval prisoner of war, took up painting and settled there. His early paintings show the influence of Brooking and Monamy's interpretations of Dutch art but he rapidly achieved recognition for his more documentary visual accounts of sea actions of the Seven Years War, 1756–1763, becoming established as England's leading marine painter. His work was even more in demand in the 1770s and 1780s, recording the naval history of the War of American Independence.
Title
Ships off the Gun Wharf at Portsmouth, 1770
Date
1772–1793
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 91.5 x W 149.8 cm
Accession number
BHC1920
Work type
Painting
National Maritime Museum
Romney Road, Greenwich, London, Greater London SE10 9NF England
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