The Burning of HMS Bombay
A Victorian naval catastrophe, Richard Brydges Beechey and the dramatic destruction of a Royal Navy ship of the line off Montevideo in 1864.
Flames tear through the decks and rigging of a great British warship. Vast clouds of smoke rise above the vessel while desperate sailors escape into crowded boats and the surrounding water. This dramatic late nineteenth-century oil painting depicts one of the Royal Navy's most visually compelling Victorian maritime disasters: the destruction of HMS Bombay off Montevideo on 14 December 1864.
Catalogued as British School, after Richard Brydges Beechey (1808-1895), the painting belongs to the established pictorial tradition derived from Beechey's celebrated composition of the catastrophe, exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1866.
A Royal Navy Disaster in Paint
The painting captures HMS Bombay at the height of the catastrophe. The warship dominates the middle distance, almost overwhelmed by an immense mass of pale grey, cream, ochre and brown smoke.
Bright passages of orange and red flame erupt through the ship and rigging, creating a dramatic contrast with the dark blue-green water below.
Despite the smoke, important structural elements of the vessel remain visible. The hull, gun ports, surviving masts, spars and rigging can still be discerned, allowing the viewer to appreciate both the scale of the ship and the severity of the destruction taking place.
The human drama is equally important. A heavily laden rescue boat occupies the foreground, carrying sailors away from the burning vessel. Further boats are visible closer to the ship, while individual survivors can be seen in the surrounding water.
The Destruction of HMS Bombay
HMS Bombay was an 84-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, constructed of teak at Bombay Dockyard and launched on 17 February 1828.
In 1861 she underwent an important transformation when she was fitted with auxiliary screw propulsion. By 1864 the vessel was serving on the South American Station.
On 14 December 1864, while engaged in target practice near the Islas de Flores on the Montevideo side of the River Plate estuary, fire broke out aboard the ship.
The cause was never determined. The fire spread rapidly through the well-ventilated wooden vessel and ultimately overwhelmed her.
Of a complement of 619, 93 men lost their lives.
The scale of the tragedy, together with the spectacle of a major Royal Navy warship consumed by fire, ensured that the destruction of Bombay became an enduring subject within nineteenth-century British maritime imagery.
Richard Brydges Beechey and the Original Composition
A Naval Officer Who Became a Marine Painter
Richard Brydges Beechey (1808-1895) combined two careers particularly relevant to the subject: he was both a Royal Navy officer and an accomplished marine painter.
A son of the celebrated portrait painter Sir William Beechey RA, Richard entered the Royal Navy as a young man and acquired extensive practical knowledge of ships, rigging, navigation and conditions at sea.
After retiring from active naval service in 1864, he continued to develop his career as a painter of maritime subjects.
Beechey's first-hand naval experience gave his marine subjects an unusual authority. His knowledge of vessels and conditions at sea distinguished him from marine painters whose understanding was primarily observational.
In 1866 he exhibited his painting of the destruction of HMS Bombay at the Royal Academy in London as exhibition number 34.
The present whereabouts of Beechey's original oil painting have not been conclusively established. However, important visual evidence relating to his composition survives within the collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
The National Maritime Museum Connection
Royal Museums Greenwich preserves particularly important comparative evidence for Beechey's composition.
The National Maritime Museum holds a late nineteenth-century oil painting of HMS Bombay on fire by marine painter George Cochrane Kerr. Significantly, Kerr's painting is inscribed "G. E. Kerr / After Beechey", explicitly identifying Beechey's composition as its source.
The Museum records that Kerr produced two copies after Beechey's painting. One is held at Greenwich and another is recorded in the collection of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth.
Royal Museums Greenwich also preserves a hand-coloured photographic print associated with Beechey's composition. The survival of this material is particularly valuable because the present location of Beechey's original oil remains unclear.
1828
HMS Bombay is launched at Bombay Dockyard on 17 February as an 84-gun second-rate ship of the line.
1861
The vessel is fitted with auxiliary screw propulsion, adapting the wooden sailing warship to the changing technological demands of the Victorian Royal Navy.
1864
On 14 December, fire breaks out during target practice near Montevideo. The ship is destroyed with the loss of 93 members of her complement.
1866
Richard Brydges Beechey exhibits his depiction of the destruction of HMS Bombay at the Royal Academy in London, exhibition number 34.
George Cochrane Kerr and the Beechey Tradition
George Cochrane Kerr was a British marine and coastal painter active during the later nineteenth century.
The National Maritime Museum's painting provides an especially important point of comparison because Kerr explicitly identified his own work as being "After Beechey".
The existence of Kerr's documented versions demonstrates that Beechey's composition was copied and circulated after its Royal Academy appearance.
The present painting clearly belongs to this same established compositional tradition. However, no documentary evidence has presently been identified that would justify attributing it to George Cochrane Kerr.
For this reason, Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD retains the more conservative attribution:
After Richard Brydges Beechey (1808-1895)
The Human Drama
One of the most compelling aspects of the painting is its concentration upon the crew rather than the vessel alone.
A crowded boat occupies the foreground, filled with escaping sailors who have successfully put distance between themselves and the burning ship. Other boats remain closer to Bombay, apparently engaged in the continuing evacuation.
Individual figures can also be distinguished in the water, while broken spars and floating wreckage reinforce the sense of chaos.
The artist uses scale effectively. The small figures emphasise the enormous size of the burning warship and the overwhelming force of the catastrophe surrounding them.
This narrative dimension distinguishes the work from the traditional ship portrait. It is not simply a representation of HMS Bombay, but a visual account of a specific historical event and the people caught within it.
Fire, Smoke and the Victorian Sublime
The most visually dominant element of the composition is smoke.
It rises in immense rolling clouds, shifting from cream and pale grey to ochre and deeper brown. Against these comparatively muted tones, the orange and red flames acquire exceptional intensity.
The sea below provides the opposite tonal effect. Dark blue-green water anchors the composition and separates the escaping sailors from the luminous destruction behind them.
The result belongs naturally within the nineteenth-century tradition of maritime catastrophe painting, where shipwreck, storm, fire and human vulnerability could be combined to create images of both historical narrative and visual spectacle.
Inscription and Physical Evidence
The reverse of the painting retains an old manuscript inscription relating to the Burning of H.M.S. Bombay.
This historic inscription is important because it demonstrates an earlier identification of the subject and forms part of the physical documentary evidence associated with the work.
An indistinct possible mark or initials can also be observed towards the lower-right area of the painted surface.
The mark cannot presently be read with sufficient confidence to identify an artist and is therefore not catalogued as a confirmed signature.
The painting is presented within a later Larson-Juhl moulded gilt wood frame, whose warm gilded finish complements the darker marine palette and luminous smoke-filled composition.
Provenance and Recorded History
Private Marine Collection
Southern England.
Subsequently acquired and researched by Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD.
The historic manuscript inscription relating to the Burning of H.M.S. Bombay remains attached to the reverse and forms part of the work's continuing documentary record.
14 December 1864
HMS Bombay is destroyed by fire off Montevideo during service on the South American Station.
1866
Richard Brydges Beechey's depiction of the catastrophe is exhibited at the Royal Academy in London as number 34.
Late 19th Century
The present British School oil painting is executed after Beechey's established composition.
Private Marine Collection
The painting subsequently forms part of a private marine collection in Southern England.
Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD
The work is subsequently researched, catalogued and presented within the company collection.
For Collectors of Maritime and Naval Art
Royal Navy History
A painting connected directly with a documented Victorian Royal Navy disaster and the destruction of an important 84-gun ship of the line.
Marine Painting
The combination of warship, turbulent water, smoke, fire and rescue boats creates a particularly dramatic example of nineteenth-century maritime narrative painting.
Beechey Connection
The composition derives from Richard Brydges Beechey's celebrated painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866.
Museum Comparisons
Royal Museums Greenwich preserves both a George Cochrane Kerr version after Beechey and photographic material associated with the original composition.
Historic Inscription
The manuscript inscription retained on the reverse provides important physical evidence identifying the historic subject.
Human Narrative
Rescue boats, sailors in the water and floating wreckage make the painting as much a human survival narrative as a portrait of a Royal Navy vessel.
Living With Maritime Art
The horizontal format and dramatic palette give the painting considerable presence while retaining dimensions suitable for a wide range of interiors.
Deep blue-green water, grey and cream smoke, brown and black maritime details and vivid orange-red flames create a sophisticated palette that works particularly well within traditional, country house, library, study and collected interiors.
The later gilt frame introduces a warm architectural border around the composition and provides contrast with the darker tones of the sea and burning vessel.
For collectors, the work also offers something beyond decorative appeal: a direct visual connection with Royal Navy history, Victorian marine painting and one of Richard Brydges Beechey's best-documented naval compositions.
Artwork Details
Condition Report
Historic condition consistent with age.
The painting displays age-related craquelure together with areas of foxing and staining across the painted surface.
Minor historic paint touch-ups are present to portions of the lower smoke and ship area, together with a small historic repair to the reverse of the canvas.
The later Larson-Juhl moulded gilt wood frame displays minor imperfections and wear commensurate with its construction and use.
Hanging thread is fitted to the reverse ready for immediate wall display.
Please study the detailed photographs carefully as they form an integral part of the condition description. Additional photographs and further information are available upon request.
Research Conclusion
This late nineteenth-century painting occupies an especially interesting position within British maritime art because its subject, historical event and compositional source can all be placed within a substantial surviving documentary framework.
The destruction of HMS Bombay on 14 December 1864 is historically recorded. Richard Brydges Beechey's interpretation of the catastrophe was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866, while Royal Museums Greenwich preserves both photographic material associated with Beechey's composition and George Cochrane Kerr's documented version inscribed "After Beechey".
The present painting clearly belongs to this established pictorial tradition.
At the same time, responsible cataloguing requires a distinction between compositional source and authorship. Although the work bears an indistinct possible mark or initials and has strong similarities to known versions of the subject, no evidence presently identified establishes the painter conclusively.
It is therefore retained under the conservative attribution British School, 19th Century, After Richard Brydges Beechey (1808-1895), rather than advancing an unsupported attribution to Beechey himself or George Cochrane Kerr.
Its dramatic subject, historic inscription, private marine collection provenance and close relationship with a documented Royal Academy composition combine to make it a particularly compelling work for collectors of British marine painting, Royal Navy history and Victorian maritime art.
Shipping
Worldwide shipping is available.
The painting will be professionally packed with appropriate consideration given to the historic oil-on-canvas support and decorative gilt frame. Insured delivery can be arranged according to destination.
Certificate of Sale & Dealer Attribution
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