The captain's best side : silhouette portraits of Edward Pellew and other naval figures
Having just renewed my account and now having room for lots more icons and pictures I had been thinking of whom I might now add pictures
and as it happens yes, fangirls, you are right about the inevitable subject though until a day or two ago it would not have been the case as I had no more portraits of EP to offer .
see below cut for a young Captain Pellew and an olderAdmiral Lord Exmouth and some other naval heroes in the highly fashionable style of their time = the silhouette.
Searching for another aspect of Pellew's life entirely I came by accident on this silhouette portrait which sold in auction back in 2000 for £2115 *sigh*
.
It wsa described as being by William Wellings ( fl 1763-1793) and is a full length silhouette of a young Captain Pellew ( if indeed it was done before 1783 a junior captain indeed, well before the capture of the Cleopatre earned the knighthood or before the rescue of the Dutton earned the baronetcy and made him a national hero).
Since he is shown in captain's uniform but without the sparkling bits that came with those honours it does seem likely.
Wellings has shown Pellew in profile to the left - one hand resting on his sword hilt and the other pointing at a chart. Familiar are the confident stance and the hawk- like nose and the long slightly straggly queue but this portrait is of a slimmer and less bulky man than other portrait and accounts - this one looks more like Mr Lindsay as EP than EP as himself in that sense.
The stage curtains are strange = though they are typical of the other exmaples of Welling's work that a quick search brings. Wellings was a fashionable silhouette artist and did a number of naval commissions of which this is another example:
the second portrait( first in the group of three here) is then of an unknown seated naval officer with dog - lovely to think it was Cuthbert Collingwood but alas the dog looks a bit small to be the celebrated Bounce.Any thoughts volgivagant?
Another captain is seem in a yet more grandiose scale( 2nd portrait in the group of three) - and can anyone work out just what is going on with his hat ? This is Captain Young and his ship Ambuscade in the background.
Wellings also received commissions for private and family portraits and sometimes these were families with naval connections- like the Austen family - where one of Jane's brothers, Edward, was given for adoption by the wealthy and childless local squire and his wife, whose decision for this adoption iscelebrated by the commissioning of a Wellings silhouette attempting to define that moment.This is also rendered somewhat romantically with a stage like setting.
some how this does give an odd distancing effect which I find strange, but am delighted to see the pictures none the less.
A final silhoutte dates from much later - 1817 and is of EP as the Victor of Algiers .
The profile is now towards the right and recognisable still is the famous aristocratic nose! And though like many officers of his generation wanted to keep the traditional breeches and long queued hair, even Pellew had succumbed by now to wearing his hair cut short. For some reason LJ will not let me upload this last one but I shall post it on my LJ another time .
What I have not been able to gauge is whether these silhouettes were often copied in engravings etc and if so, did contemporary fangirls collect them? This fangirl is unlikely to start - not at over £2000 a throw but it has been fine to catch up on yet another aspect of the iconography of the old lion.
and as it happens yes, fangirls, you are right about the inevitable subject though until a day or two ago it would not have been the case as I had no more portraits of EP to offer .
see below cut for a young Captain Pellew and an olderAdmiral Lord Exmouth and some other naval heroes in the highly fashionable style of their time = the silhouette.
Searching for another aspect of Pellew's life entirely I came by accident on this silhouette portrait which sold in auction back in 2000 for £2115 *sigh*
.
It wsa described as being by William Wellings ( fl 1763-1793) and is a full length silhouette of a young Captain Pellew ( if indeed it was done before 1783 a junior captain indeed, well before the capture of the Cleopatre earned the knighthood or before the rescue of the Dutton earned the baronetcy and made him a national hero).
Since he is shown in captain's uniform but without the sparkling bits that came with those honours it does seem likely.
Wellings has shown Pellew in profile to the left - one hand resting on his sword hilt and the other pointing at a chart. Familiar are the confident stance and the hawk- like nose and the long slightly straggly queue but this portrait is of a slimmer and less bulky man than other portrait and accounts - this one looks more like Mr Lindsay as EP than EP as himself in that sense.
The stage curtains are strange = though they are typical of the other exmaples of Welling's work that a quick search brings. Wellings was a fashionable silhouette artist and did a number of naval commissions of which this is another example:
the second portrait( first in the group of three here) is then of an unknown seated naval officer with dog - lovely to think it was Cuthbert Collingwood but alas the dog looks a bit small to be the celebrated Bounce.Any thoughts volgivagant?
Another captain is seem in a yet more grandiose scale( 2nd portrait in the group of three) - and can anyone work out just what is going on with his hat ? This is Captain Young and his ship Ambuscade in the background.
Wellings also received commissions for private and family portraits and sometimes these were families with naval connections- like the Austen family - where one of Jane's brothers, Edward, was given for adoption by the wealthy and childless local squire and his wife, whose decision for this adoption iscelebrated by the commissioning of a Wellings silhouette attempting to define that moment.This is also rendered somewhat romantically with a stage like setting.
some how this does give an odd distancing effect which I find strange, but am delighted to see the pictures none the less.
A final silhoutte dates from much later - 1817 and is of EP as the Victor of Algiers .
The profile is now towards the right and recognisable still is the famous aristocratic nose! And though like many officers of his generation wanted to keep the traditional breeches and long queued hair, even Pellew had succumbed by now to wearing his hair cut short. For some reason LJ will not let me upload this last one but I shall post it on my LJ another time .
What I have not been able to gauge is whether these silhouettes were often copied in engravings etc and if so, did contemporary fangirls collect them? This fangirl is unlikely to start - not at over £2000 a throw but it has been fine to catch up on yet another aspect of the iconography of the old lion.