This is the freely painted oil study of George Chambers Senior’s ‘The Bombardment of Algiers, 27 August 1816’ (BHC0617).

In 1816 a squadron under Admiral Sir Edward Pellew was fitted out and sent to Algiers where they arrived, in company with a small Dutch squadron, on 27 August 1816. They sought the release of the British Consul, who had been detained, and over 1000 Christian slaves, many being seamen taken by the Algerines. When they received no reply the fleet bombarded Algiers in the most spectacular of several similar punitive actions of this period that finally broke the power of the 'Barbary pirates', who had been a plague on European commerce in the Mediterranean for centuries. Pellew was subsequently created Viscount Exmouth.

The artist, George Chambers Senior (1803–40), went to Plymouth to sketch the men-of-war in the production of his painting. The NMM has a number of the preliminary drawings for it. In this oil study Chambers laid out the colours and masses of light, shade and smoke with the ‘Impregnable’ on the right and the ‘Minden’ in the left middle distance, as well as the vessels closer to batteries of the harbour, but omitting meticulous detail in favour of an atmospheric impression.