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Oriental seaman with his left leg tucked behind his head [Bray album]

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

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Date

Mar 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-200887

Description

No. 44 of 74. Dated and signed 'March 75 AVpGB' (to the life by Gabriel Bray), this drawing presumably shows a young seaman of the 'Pallas' doing his 'party trick'. Bray gave it no title and whether the man is oriental, as suggested by the Museum's initial titling, is perhaps open to question. 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

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