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Creator:
William Anderson, 1757–1837
Title:

Hussars Embarking at Deptford

Date:
1793
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
18 1/4 x 24 inches (46.4 x 61 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Signed and dated in black paint, lower right: "W. Anderson | 1793."

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B2001.2.181
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
army | cavalry | dock | flag | full-rigged ships | marine art | merchant ships | military art | naval ship | navy | rifles | sea | ships | troopships | Vessels (ships)
Associated Places:
Deptford | England | Europe | Greater London | Thames | United Kingdom
Access:
Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:41208
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The setting of this painting is Perry’s Brunswick Dock, Blackwall, London, during an embarkation of cavalry, part of the mobilization of troops in response to Britain’s entry into the French Revolutionary Wars. Contemporary newspapers reported three embarkations of cavalry from the Brunswick dock in the spring of 1793. King George III and Queen Charlotte were expected for the first, on April 24, but were unable to attend because of the “indisposition” of one of the princesses. It has been suggested that this painting shows that embarkation, which Perry may have commissioned Anderson to commemorate, and that, when the king and queen failed to appear, the artist adapted his composition to include Perry and his wife, perhaps shown from behind in the lower right of the canvas, observing the scene. Ships were taken into the basin so that the cavalry horses could be easily brought on board. In the background, the animals are lined up to be hoisted in a canvas sling, like the horse just to the right of the composition’s center. In the distance, looking south, the Greenwich Hospital for Seamen is visible on the small stretch of the horizon line at left.

Gallery label for Spreading Canvas - Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting (Yale Center for British Art, 2016-09-09 - 2016-12-04)

Spreading Canvas - Eighteenth - Century British Marine Painting (Yale Center for British Art, 2016-09-09 - 2016-12-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

All The Queen's Horses (National Horse Racing Museum, 2003-04-26 - 2003-08-23) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Eleanor Hughes, Spreading Canvas : Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2016, p. 217-218, cat. 78, ND 1373.G74 S67 2016 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Kentucky Horse Park, All the queen's horses, the role of the horse in British history , Lexington, KY, 2003, p. 181, no. 45.1, SF284 G7A55 2003 + (YCBA) [YCBA]


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