Defence
The Fleet at Sea, 1688.
Willem van der Velde the Younger
MOD4109 - oil on panel, 98cm x 222cm.
The MOD Art Collection includes many paintings showing battle scenes, particularly naval battles.
Battle scenes were potentially lucrative for artists, particularly in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries as engravings found a ready and apparently unquenchable market.
The paintings themselves were avidly commissioned and collected.
Little is known about the circumstances surrounding the origins of this painting; it was probably made for a private commission to show all the ships commanded by a particular captain.
It does not appear to depict any particular naval event. The painting, which is signed and dated, came into the ownership of the Admiralty from the collection of Sir Phillip Stevens, Admiralty Secretary from 1763 to 1795. It hangs in the Admiralty Board Room, just off Whitehall.
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