Beschreibung:

The Property of a Gentleman
Lemuel Francis AbbottLeicestershire circa 1760 - 1802 LondonPortrait of Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis 1st Earl of St Vincent (1735–1823)
oil on canvasunframed: 77 x 64 cm.; 30¼ x 25¼ in.framed: 92.9 x 80.5 cm.; 36½ x 31¾ in.Condition reportThe canvas is lined and the paint surface is flat and stable. There is an old and very small repair to the canvas visible in the top right corner. The surface is covered in a thin layer of yellowed discoloured and dried out varnish. The painting has been executed onto a thickly woven canvas that has become more apparent due to relining. There is good example of surviving impasto throughout, including in the face and costume details. There appears to be a pronounced craquelure in the background located to the right of the sitter, which bears some old retouching. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals the entire surface is covered in a layer of old reflective varnish. Very old and minor retouching is visible in the aforementioned damage and along the craquelure lines in the background and the sitter's face. There appears to be a much older campaign of retouching also visible in the background, particularly on the right side. Overall, the painting is in good condition and presents well.
Please note that Condition 12 of the Conditions of Business for Buyers (Online Only) is not applicable to this lot.
The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The condition report is provided to assist you with assessing the condition of the lot and is for guidance only. Any reference to condition in the condition report for the lot does not amount to a full description of condition. The images of the lot form part of the condition report for the lot. Certain images of the lot provided online may not accurately reflect the actual condition of the lot. In particular, the online images may represent colors and shades which are different to the lot's actual color and shades. The condition report for the lot may make reference to particular imperfections of the lot but you should note that the lot may have other faults not expressly referred to in the condition report for the lot or shown in the online images of the lot. The condition report may not refer to all faults, restoration, alteration or adaptation. The condition report is a statement of opinion only. For that reason, the condition report is not an alternative to taking your own professional advice regarding the condition of the lot. NOTWITHSTANDING THIS ONLINE CONDITION REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE/BUSINESS APPLICABLE TO THE RESPECTIVE SALE.ProvenancePossibly Captain William Locker (1731– 1800);
Possibly Edward Hawke Locker (1777–1849);
Thence by descent to the Locker-Lampson family;
From whom directly acquired by Knoedler, London, by 1925 (according to a card in the Heinz Library, London);
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Lionel Barton (1875-1942), London;
Thence by descent to the present owner.Catalogue noteAdmiral of the Fleet John Jervis 1st Earl of St Vincent, had a rather less auspicious start to his career than his later rank and title would suggest. Born in Staffordshire in 1735, Jervis fled his home to join the navy, only to return after hearing of his parents’ distress. Through the sponsorship of Lady Jane Hamilton (the mother-in-law of Emma Hamilton, Horatio Nelson’s lover), he managed to join as an able seaman in 1749 and was shortly promoted midshipman. After serving in the Caribbean, Jervis saw action in the Seven Years' War in North America, notably at Quebec in 1759 where he commanded the sloop HMS Porcupine and worked closely with General Wolfe and (the then sailing master) James Cook  After distinguished service in the American Revolutionary War and the Relief of Gibraltar in 1782, Jervis was knighted and pursued a career in politics, becoming MP for Launceston in Cornwall.
Jervis is, however, best known for his command of the Mediterranean Fleet in the French Revolutionary Wars. He attained this post in 1795 and, as Nelson would later do, took HMS Victory as his flagship. This was the theatre of his most famous action, from which his subsequent earldom took its name. The Battle of Cape St Vincent took place on the 14 February 1797 and began when Jervis realised that his force of fifteen ships of the line was outnumbered almost two-to-one by the Spanish; ‘enough, Sir, no more of that; the die is cast, and if there are fifty sail I will go through them’, he remarked, having been told the strength of his enemy.1 This battle is also well remembered for the heroism of Commodore Horatio Nelson, who against orders, broke formation in his crippled ship HMS Captain to come alongside the San Nicholas. Having boarded the Spanish ship (which duly surrendered), Nelson then led his men on to the San Josef, whose rigging had become entangled with the San Nicholas. Nelson captured two ships but had acted without authority. After the battle, when reminded of this by Sir Robert Calder, Jervis quipped: ‘It certainly was so, and if you ever commit such a breach of your orders, I will forgive you also.’2
Created an Earl for his victory at Cape St Vincent, Jervis was given the command of the Channel Fleet in 1800, protecting Britain from a possible French invasion. It was in this post that he made his famous comment to the Board of Admiralty: ‘I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I say only that they will not come by sea’.3 Despite being something of a martinet, he was given to displays of extraordinary generosity towards his ratings. He was also an active philanthropist, raising and donating money towards the care of naval orphans, wounded survivors of the Battle of Waterloo and victims of famine in Ireland.
The painting
The painting shows Jervis wearing an admiral's uniform which dates to post June 1795, when new regulations were brought in by the navy. The uniform features two gold epaulettes of an admiral with three silver stars on each. Abbott is likely to have completed this portrait at some point between 1795 and 1797/8, as the portrait shows him wearing the gold medal given for the victory of St Vincent. The admiral also wears the badge of the Order of the Bath, to which he was initiated in 1783 for his efforts in Gibraltar.
This portrait must have been undertaken in a very similar period to Lemuel Francis Abbott's portraits of Admiral Horation Nelson, the most iconic of which date to 1797 and 1799 and are preserved in the collections of The National Portrait Gallery, London, and the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, respectively.4 Another version of this portrait ascribed to the studio of Abbott, featuring a marine landscape with boats in the background, is in The National Portrait Gallery, London.5
Note on Provenance
An annotated card kept in the Heinz Library suggests that this painting was acquired by Knoedler directly from the Locker-Lampson family. It is possible that the work had descended from Edward Hawke Locker (1777–1849), founder of the Greenwich Hospital's Naval Gallery.6 Locker had owned a serious collection of naval portraiture, several examples of which he inherited from his father Captain William Locker (1731– 1800), including a portrait of Nelson by Abbott which survives in a private collection.7
1 J. Tucker, Memoirs of Admiral The Right Honourable The Earl of St Vincent, London 1844, I, p. 255.2 A.T. Mahan, The Life of Nelson, London 1897, vol. I, p. 238.3 R. Anidora, Iron Admirals: Naval Leadership in the Twentieth Century, Westport 2000, p. 3.4 https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw04633/Horatio-Nelson; https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-143625 https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw05573/John-Jervis-Earl-of-St-Vincent6 C. Roach, 'Domestic Display and Imperial Identity: A Visual Record of the Art Collections of Edward Hawke Locker', in Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 75, no. 3, pp. 411–28.7 R. Walker The Nelson Portraits, London 1998, pp. 200–1, no. 13.