Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD

Oil Painting Naval Battle Quiberon Bay November 20th 1759 By John Lewis Chapman

48,008.00 SR

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Get transported to the iconic naval battle of Quiberon Bay with this traditional marine oil painting by John Lewis Chapman. Join Admiral Hawke and the British naval fleet as they fiercely battle the French Admiral Comte de Conflans in 1759. Experience the intensity and bravery of this historical event captured in lively brushstrokes.
Make a big statement & really impress your guests or clients with this historic marine naval battle masterpiece for your home or corporate office.
Oil on board set in a fine decorative gilt original frame.
A good proportion sized with the frame being 64 cm wide and 46.5cm high.
Title “The Battle of Quiberon Bay 1759” By John Lewis Chapman.
Circa late 20th century.
Subject seascape marine view of the historical most important decisive naval battle of the Seven Years war between Great Britain & France which began in 1756 and ended in 1763. On both flanks ships firing on opposing enemy ships. with white cloud burst of cannon gunfire smoke, various shot broken masts half sunken in the choppy rough bay seas. In the centre a British Frigate in full side profile, Union Jack ensign flying on the stern with red and light blue ensigns flying on the tall masts. Sailors in action on the deck & in the crows nests. Your imgaination is caught by the intensity in this scene, you can feel the action & despair of many French sailors stranded in the cold dark waters, clinging to wreckage, shouting & waving at the French longboats who are rowing fiercely to rescue them from the freezing waters such peril. A fast sinking half sunken French frigate is going down by the bow, French ensign flag still fyling & only has 1 mast left. another French war ship which has large cannon shot tear holes in its main masted sail is exchanding broadsides firing at another British Frigate. Above dark storm clouds with small spots of blue shining through.
The French planned to land around 20,000 men in Ireland, they assembled this force in the gulf of Morihan which is in southern Brittany under the command of Duc d'Aiguillon, the army was escorted by the Brest naval fleet who was under the command of Admiral Hubert de Conflans. The British Royal naval commander was Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, his channel fleet blockaded Brest to stop the French from leaving to collect the troop transports. However during a gale during the first week in November, Hawke's ships were made to sail for shelter in Torbay, this gave de Conflans the chance to leave.
When Hawke was informed that the French left he went quickly to pursue them. On 20 November, spotted him around 20 miles out to sea. De Conflans using local knowledge, ordered his fleet to take shelter in Quiberon Bay, south of Morbihan. He wrongly assumed Hawke would not follow him, his thinking was that night was quickly approaching and he noticed the area was full of ill-charted rocks, reefs also wild seas. This was a major miscalculation in his judgement. Hawke ruthlessly followed him into the bay, he lost 2 of his own ships on the reefs. He combined his cannon gunfire and the bad weather, which resulsted in the destruction of de Conflans' force in what became an action mainly in the dark. The known naval song 'Hearts of Oak' was composed to commemorate this battle.
Signed in the bottom corner by the artist J L Chapman.
In our opinion this is one of his finest marine painting works.
Artist biography John Lewis Chapman (born 1946 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England is a known British artist painter of urban landscapes, townscapes, transport, rural and maritime scenes amongst other subjects. He has painted mainly in acrylics, but he is equally proficient with oils, watercolours and gouache. Many of Chapman's paintings have been reproduced as limited edition prints and he has also completed several commissions for Josiah Wedgwoo and Sons. In 2003, a book John Chapman's Lancashire was published by Halsgrove. The highest recorded sold price for one of his works was for the amount $158,926 US dollars sold at Christie’s.
Chapman attended Bangor Street School in Blackburn, where his art teacher, Peter Shackleton, recognised his talent and arranged for him to take art classes at Blackburn College of Art on Saturday mornings. During his time at school, Chapman developed an interest in trains and the railway art of Terence Cuneo and others. After leaving school in 1961, Chapman was employed as a layout artist and later as a technical illustrator working on his own paintings in the evenings and at weekends. In 1968 Chapman became an independent, professional artist making his first sales of railway paintings and receiving commissions for specific subjects in oils. Major exhibitions soon followed at W. H. Patterson's gallery in Mayfair and at public galleries in his native Lancashire. In 1984, one of John's paintings was exhibited in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition.
The Battle of Quiberon Bay (known as Bataille des Cardinaux in French) was a decisive naval engagement during the Seven Years' War. It was fought on 20 November 1759 between the Royal Navy and the French Navy in Quiberon Bay, off the coast of France near Saint-Nazaire. The battle was the culmination of British efforts to eliminate French naval superiority, which could have given the French the ability to carry out their planned invasion of Great Britain. A Britishfleet of 24 ships of the line under Sir Edward Hawke tracked down and engaged a French fleet of 21 ships of the line under Marshal de Conflans. After hard fighting, the British fleet sank or ran aground six French ships, captured one and scattered the rest, giving the Royal Navy one of its greatest victories, and ending the threat of French invasion for good. The battle signalled the rise of the Royal Navy in becoming the world's foremost naval power, and, for the British, was part of the Annus Mirabilis of 1759.
Provenance Private marine collection, high end Northern Shire auction & in collection of Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD, artists own label verso.
Reference source Stephen Whittle, John Chapman's Lancashire, Halsgrove (2003) pages 11–20 (ISBN 1 84114 292 1)
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Condition report.
Offered in fine used condition.
Painting surface in good overall condition, having various craquelure & foxing stains, the frame has general wear, scuffs, chips, losses, paint loss to the frame in places commensurate with usage & age.
Hanging thread on the back ready for immediate home wall display.
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Dimensions in centimetres of the frame

High (46.5 cm)
Wide (64 cm)
Depth (5 cm)