THOMAS WHITCOMBE | A British Man of War before the Rock of Gibraltar

oil on canvas

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 July 1997, lot 2;
There acquired by Bernadette and William M.B. Berger, Denver, Colorado.

Denver, The Denver Art Museum, '600 Years of British Painting, The Berger Collection at The Denver Art Museum,' 10 October 1998 - 28 March 1999.

'600 Years of British Painting, The Berger Collection at The Denver Art Museum,' Denver 1998, p. 211, reproduced p. 210.

The relining is flat and stable. The surface is clean and the painting is presentable. Overall the paint surface has been well retained and there is very good detail in the ship and the rigging. There is an overall fine craquelure pattern which is not distracting. Under UV light: there is a small, irregular shaped retouch in the upper part of the sails which is possibly to address at old tear. Other scattered retouches can be seen along both right and left sides from top to bottom, lower part of water, and some very small ones in sky. This painting can be hung as is. Offered in a carved and gilt wood frame.
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Thomas Whitcombe was a prolific marine artist, though little is known about the details of his life.  He exhibited at the Royal Academy most years between 1783 and 1824 and was one of the preeminent recorders of ships and sea battles of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.  Here a British Man of War is seen approaching the Rock of Gibraltar, a small rocky headland at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula that had been in British hands since it was captured from Spain in 1704.  Guarding the narrow nine mile Strait of Gibraltar that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, the Rock is of enormous strategic importance and remains a key British naval base to this day.