Name: DOMINIC SERRES (AUCH 1719-1793 LONDON)
Brand: A squadron of Dutch men o’war
Price: 42000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

DOMINIC SERRES (AUCH 1719-1793 LONDON)
A squadron of Dutch men o’war
signed with initials and dated 'D S 1771' (lower right)
oil on canvas
38¹⁄₂ x 56 in. (97.8 x 142.3 cm.)
in a contemporary frame

with Ellis & Smith, London; Christie's, London, 26 June 1936, lot 117.
with Glaisher & Nash, London.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 19 November 1965, lot 163, where acquired by the present owner.

A. Wilson, A Dictionary of British Marine Painters, Leigh-on-Sea, 1974, pl. 34.
M.S. Robinson, Van de Velde: A Catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and the Younger Willem van de Velde, London, 1990, p. 834, no. 371.2, illustrated.
A. Russett, Dominic Serres R.A. 1719-1793, War Artist to the Navy, London, 2021, p. 95, pl. 39.

London, The Royal Academy, The exhibition of the Royal Academy: the fourth, 1772, no. 239.
London, The National Maritime Museum, on long-term loan from 1974-1999.
London, The National Maritime Museum, The Art of the Van de Veldes, 1982, no. 151.

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Lot Essay

This lively painting is a version of Willem van de Velde's 1672 composition, now in the National Gallery of South Africa, Cape Town (inv. no. 53/48). A founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768, Serres spent much of the 1770s and 1780s painting the naval history of the American War of Independence. Freed from the constraints of historical documentation that these commissions carried, Serres' execution here is of a wonderful fluidity, perfectly capturing the theatre of van de Velde's original, which itself harked back to the stormy compositions of Ludolf Bakhuizen.