Commemoration of Victory of 1 June 1794 [“The Glorious First of June”; Third Battle of Ushant]

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Robert Smirke was born in Wigton, Carlisle. He was brought to London by his father in 1766 and apprenticed to a coach painter named Bromley. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1772 and exhibited at the Academy from 1786 to 1800, in 1805 and in 1815. He became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1791 and a full Royal Academician two years later. Smirke specialised in unusually small scale scenes from literary or theatrical subjects, and his works are often humorous. His radical and revolutionary opinions led George III to bar his appointment as Keeper of the Royal Academy in 1804. The artist died at the age of 92 at his home in Osnaburgh Terrace, near Regent's Park, London.
Francesco Bartolozzi was born in Italy. He became a pupil of the German painter and printmaker Joseph Wagner, then based in Venice. In 1764, he was invited to England by Frederick Augusta Barnard, King George III's Librarian. Although best known for copying Old Master drawings in the stipple technique (such as his reproductions of Guercino’s drawings in the Royal Collection), Bartolozzi also engraved plates after contemporary artists (notably Giovanni Battista Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann). He set up a studio in London, which produced large numbers of ‘furniture prints’ (generally set within a roundel or oval and intended for framing). In 1802 he left England to become Director of the Lisbon Academy in Portugal.

People

Richard, Earl Howe Howe (1726 - 1799), Thomas, 1st Baron Graves Graves (1725 - 1802), Sir George, 5th Baronet Bowyer (1740 - 1800), Alan, 1st Baron Gardner Gardner (1742 - 1808/9), Sir Benjamin Caldwell (1739 - 1820), Alexander, Viscount Bridport Hood (1726 - 1814), Sir Thomas, 1st Baronet Pasley (1734 - 1808), James Montagu (1752 - 1794), Hugh Pigot (1769 - 1797), Thomas Mackenzie , Thomas Pringle (c.1740 - 1803), Sir Roger, 1st Baronet Curtis (1746 - 1816), Sir Henry Harvey (1737 - 1810), Sir William, 1st Baronet Parker (1743 - 1802), John Harvey (1740 - 1794), Anthony Molloy , John Bazeley ( - 1809), James, Baron Gambier Gambier (1756 - 1833), Lord Hugh Seymour (1759 - 1801), Sir Charles, 5th Baronet Cotton (1753 - 1812), Sir Thomas Pakenham (1757 - 1836), Cuthbert, Baron Collingwood Collingwood (1748 - 1810), Sir Andrew Snape Douglas (1761 - 1797), Sir John Thomas, 1st Baronet Duckworth (1748 - 1817), John Willett Payne (1752 - 1803), Sir George Cranfield Berkeley (1753 - 1818), Sir Albemarle, Baronet Bertie (1755 - 1824), Sir William Domett (1752 - 1828), John Hutt (1746 - 1794), Sir Henry Nicholls , George Blagden Westcott (c.1753 - 1798), Isaac Schomberg (1753 - 1813), George Keith, Viscount Keith Elphinstone (1746 - 1823), Sir William Johnstone Hope (1766 - 1831)

Places

Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic

Subjects

allegory & symbolism, group portrait, seascape/coastal scene, tree, smoke, sea, naval officer, winged victory, Britannia, French Revolutionary War, Third Battle of Ushant, The Glorious First of June, ship

Materials & Techniques

engraving

Artist

Robert Smirke (1753 - 1845)
Francesco Bartolozzi (1727 - 1815)
Thomas Ryder (1746 - 1810)
James Stow

Title

Commemoration of Victory of 1 June 1794 [“The Glorious First of June”; Third Battle of Ushant]

Date

published 1804

Medium

Engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Colnaghi, June 1952

GAC number

1713