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Half-length portrait of an officer from the 'Pallas', possibly Alexander Agnew [Bray album]

© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London | CC BY-NC-ND

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Date

January 1775

Artist

Gabriel Bray (1746-1823)

Collective Title

From an album of drawings by Gabriel Bray.

Collection

Royal Museums Greenwich

Image Link

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-200885

Description

No. 42 of 74. Signed and dated 'AvprGB (to the life by Gabriel Bray) Jan 1775 Pallas'. While the sitter is unidentified, he is clearly a lieutenant of the 'Pallas' and the drawing shows how officers must have looked much of the time in working 'undress' uniform. It may show the first lieutenant, Alexander Agnew, whose career came to an end in 1780 after an irresolute engagement with French privateers of Flamborough Head, Yorkshire, when he was Master and Commander of the 16-gun sloop 'Fury'. He was subsequently dismissed from the service by a court-martial. This is one of 73 drawings by Bray (plus one signed 'NF 1782') preserved in a 19th-century album. They have now been separately remounted. Bray (1750-1823), was second lieutenant of the 44-gun ‘Pallas’ under Captain the Hon. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) – later a well-known admiral - on two voyages (1774-77) to report on British interests in West Africa, including the slave trade. The dated drawings refer only to the first of these, from December 1774 to September 1775, though a few may be from the second. Others comprise country views, some of Deal, Kent (where Bray may have come from), and others of social-history interest.

Image Licence

CC BY-NC-ND

Image Credit

© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Location

Atlantic Ocean

Medium

Tags

Ships
Naval
Portraits

Category

People & Society

Glossary
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© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform