'The Old Temeraire'

With printed description in same mount. The plate for this print was made by Willmore in 1845. In 1884, writing to Ruskin on the subject, R.C. Leslie (son of C.R. Leslie RA and a nautical authority) recalled: 'I have before me the engraving by Wilmore [sic] of the Téméraire. I think it was [Clarkson] Stanfield who told me that the rigging in this engraving was trimmed up and generally made intelligible to the engraver by some mechanical marine artist or other. I am not sure now who, but I think it was [Edward] Duncan; whether or no, the rigging is certainly not as Turner painted it, whilst the black funnel of the tug in the engraving is placed abaft her mast or flagpole, instead of before it as in Turner’s picture; his first strong, almost prophetic, idea of smoke, soot, iron and steam, coming to the front of all naval matters, being thus changed and, I venture to think, weakened by this alteration…..’ (repr. in Ruskin 'Works', (Dilecta) [Cook and Wedderburn, ed.], vol. 31, p.576. A drawing by Duncan of 'The Temeraire being towed to Deptford [sic] to be broken up' which became generally known only in 1995 and is now also in the collection (see ZBA5912) may relate to this advice. It comprises three small sketches of a ship under tow by two tugs (which was how the 'Temeraire' was indeed taken to the breakers on 5-6 September 1838) and includes one very clear tug image which might have been the source of this change in the present print. Duncan, like Turner includes masts on the vessel being towed, though the 'Temeraire''s were beyond reasonable doubt removed previously: a letter of 1878 from Henry Liggins (a naval amateur) to Sir Charles Eastlake, preserved in the National Gallery file on the matter, says they were removed at Sheerness on 28 August. Turner moved the tug mast aft of the funnel for pictorial reasons, though they were always forward in tugs that had them.

Object Details

ID: PAH0761
Collection: Fine art
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Cassell & Co. Ltd; Willmore, James Tibbetts Turner, Joseph Mallord William
Places: Unlinked place
Vessels: Temeraire (1798)
Date made: 1845
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Caird Fund.
Measurements: Mount: 354 mm x 500 mm
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