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.
The Battle of Trafalgar, in 1805, was the deciding event in the Napoleonic Naval wars, and is probably the most depicted battle in British history. The MOD Art Collection includes three significant versions; this one is probably the best.
The painting is accompanied by the artists' sketch, which suggests that he was present at the battle itself, although we have been unable to confirm this. The work was commissioned by a contemporary naval captain and bequeathed to the Admiralty in 1926.