The Battle of Cape St. Vincent was a naval battle that took place off the southern coast of Portugal on 16 January 1780 during the American Revolutionary War. A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a Spanish squadron under Don Juan de Lángara. The battle is sometimes referred to as the Moonlight Battle because it was unusual for naval battles in the Age of Sail to take place at night. It was also the first major naval victory for the British over their European enemies in the war and proved the value of copper-sheathing the hulls of warships.
The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, it has no general admission charge; there are admission charges for most side-gallery temporary exhibitions, usually supplemented by many loaned works from other museums.
Dominic Serres (1722–1793), also known as Dominic Serres the Elder, was a French-born painter strongly associated with the English school of painting, and with paintings with a naval or marine theme. Such were his connections with the English art world, that he became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and was later briefly its librarian.
Juan Francisco de Lángara y Huarte was a Spanish Navy officer and politician.
John Thomas Serres was an English maritime painter who enjoyed significant success, including exhibiting extensively at the Royal Academy, and was for a time Maritime Painter to King George III.
The action of 19 December 1796 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought in the last stages of the Mediterranean campaign between two British Royal Navy frigates and two Spanish Navy frigates off the coast of Murcia. The British squadron was the last remaining British naval force in the Mediterranean, sent to transport the British garrison of Elba to safety under the command of Commodore Horatio Nelson. The Spanish under Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart were the vanguard of a much larger squadron. One Spanish frigate was captured and another damaged before Spanish reinforcements drove the British off and recaptured the lost ship.
The action of 13 October 1796 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought off the Mediterranean coast of Spain near Cartagena between the British Royal Navy 32-gun frigate HMS Terpsichore under Captain Richard Bowen and the Spanish Navy 34-gun frigate Mahonesa under Captain Tomás de Ayalde. The action was the first battle of the Anglo-Spanish War, coming just eight days after the Spanish declaration of war. In a battle lasting an hour and forty minutes, Mahonesa was captured.
The Piazza at Havana is a landscape painting by the French-born British artist Dominic Serres. It depicts the scene during the British occupation of Havana, Cuba following Britain's capture of the city from Spain during the Seven Years' War. British troops in redcoats are shown parading in the Plaza Vieja while British sailors are in the foreground. Serres painted a series of works focusing on the taking of Havana for the Keppel family, three of whom led the British campaign. The title uses the Italian loan word piazza, common in English during the era, rather than the Spanish plaza.
The Battle of Camperdown is a 1799 history painting by the American-born painter John Singleton Copley. It depicts the conclusion to the Battle of Camperdown on 11 October 1797, which was fought in the North Sea between fleets of the Royal Navy and the Batavian Navy during the War of the First Coalition. A decisive British victory, Copley's painting shows British Admiral Adam Duncan accepting the surrender of the Batavian Admiral Jan Willem de Winter. Its full title is The Surrender of the Dutch Admiral de Winter to Admiral Duncan at the Battle of Camperdown.
The Battle of Quiberon Bay is a 1779 history painting by the French-born British artist Dominic Serres. It depicts the naval Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759 during the Seven Years' War. The decisive victory of Admiral Hawke's Royal Navy fleet thwarted a French invasion of Britain as part of the Annus Mirabilis.
Princess Charlotte Arriving at Harwich is a 1763 history painting by the French-born British artist Dominic Serres. It shows Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz arriving at the port of Harwich in Essex aboard the royal yacht Royal Charlotte. Charlotte was arriving in England for her wedding with the British monarch George III and their joint coronation at Westminster Abbey. She had sailed from Cuxhaven escorted by the Admiral of the Fleet Lord Anson, at a time when Britain was fighting the Seven Years War against France and its allies. Serres himself travelled to Harwich to record the scene. The ship is shown passing the Landguard Fort on the Suffolk side of the River Orwell with a crowd of onlookers around the Low Lighthouse on the Harwich shore.
The Battle of Trafalgar is an 1836 history painting by the British artist Clarkson Stanfield. It depicts the 1805 naval Battle of Trafalgar in which the Royal Navy led by Horatio Nelson defeated a combined Franco-Spanish fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. The painting was commissioned by the United Service Club and represented a major milestone in Clarkson's career.
Portrait of Horatio Nelson is a 1781 portrait painting by the Italian-born English artist John Francis Rigaud depicting the British sailor Horatio Nelson. Later a celebrated admiral, known for his victories at the Battle of the Nile and Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson was at this time a young captain in the Royal Navy. It is occasionally known as the Young Nelson.
Portrait of Admiral Rodney or Admiral Rodney at the Battle of the Saintes is a 1783 portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Gainsborough featuring the British admiral George Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney. It depicts his April 1782 victory at the Battle of the Saintes in the Caribbean Sea during the American War of Independence. Rodney led the Royal Navy to a decisive victory over the French fleet commanded by the Comte de Grasse by "breaking the line". Rodney is shown on the deck of the de Grasse's captured flagship Ville de Paris with the ship's Fleur-de-lis ensign behind him, as smoke from the battle swirls in the background. In 1788 the artist's nephew Gainsborough Dupont produced a mezzotint based on the picture.
Destruction of the American Fleet at Penobscot Bay is a c.1779 history painting by the French-born artist Dominic Serres. It depicts a scene from the Penobscot Expedition on 14 August 1779 during the American War of Independence. After a British force had landed in Penobscot Bay in modern-day Maine, an expedition largely from Massachusetts moved to dislode them. A smaller relief force of the Royal Navy under George Collier arrived from New York and attacked, destroying much of the shipping.
The Capture of the Chevrette is an 1802 history painting by the French-born British artist Philip James de Loutherbourg. It depicts the cutting out of the French Navy's corvette Chevrette in 1801 during the Napoleonic Wars. The Chevrette was moored in Camaret Bay in Brittany under the protection of the artillery of shore batteries. Ship's boats from four ships of the British Royal Navy squadron blockading Brest, the Robust, Doris, Beaulieu and Uranie, moved in a cutting out move to storm the ship, overpower its French crew and take it out into British control.
Portrait of Augustus Keppel is a 1749 portrait painting by the English artist Joshua Reynolds and depicting the British naval officer Augustus Keppel. The two men met the same year at the artist accompanied Keppel on an expedition to the Mediterranean. He sat for Reynolds at Port Mahon and Minorca is depicted in the background. Visible on the right is a squadron of Royal Navy ships led by the Centurion. In contrast to the more epic style Reynolds would later use for military figures, Keppel is portrayed as "upstanding and admirable, but he is hardly a transcendent hero".
Portrait of George Cockburn is an 1817 portrait painting by the English artist John James Halls depicting Sir George Cockburn, a British admiral of the Royal Navy. Amongst the most notable events of his career was his participation in the Burning of Washington during the War of 1812. He later escorted to the defeat French Emperor Napoleon into his exile on the island of Saint Helena. The painting commemorates his role in the 1814 raid on the American capital.
Gibraltar Relieved By Sir George Rodney is a 1782 history painting by the French-born British artist Dominic Serres. It portrays a scene from the Great Siege of Gibraltar in January 1780 during American War of Independence. Having successfully defeated a Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent the British Admiral Rodney escorted a relief and resupply effort to the garrison. This was a major boost to the defence of the British stronghold, which successfully defeated all efforts to capture it by French and Spanish forces between 1779 and 1783. Visible in the painting is Rodney's flagship Sandwich as well as the Fenix, the flagship of Spanish admiral Juan de Lángara which was captured at Cape St. Vincent.
Portrait of Admiral Byng is a 1749 portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Hudson. It depicts the British admiral John Byng. Byng served in the Royal Navy from 1718 and rose through the ranks and is today known primarily for his failed attempt to relieve the Siege of Minorca during the early stages of Seven Years War. After an indecisive engagement with a French fleet at the Battle of Minorca, Bygne withdrew to Gibraltar and the garrison of Minorca was forced to surrender. Arrested and tried on his return to Britain, a court martial condemned him to death and in March 1757 he was shot on the quarterdeck of HMS Monarch in Portsmouth Harbour. The execution was referenced in the novel Candide by Voltaire.
