Artist: William Bromley (1769-1842) after Arthur William Devis (1762-1822)
Title: The Death of Admiral Lord Nelson
Date: 1812
School: British, British XIXth-century
Medium: hand-coloured etching and engraving
Dimensions: 492 x 612mm (plate), 528 x 662mm (support)
Watermark: none
Inscriptions/marks: in the image lower left border <<Painted by A. W. Devis>>; in the image lower right border <<Engraved by Wm Bromley.>>; in the image lower centre border <<The Death of/Admiral Lord Nelson/Published March 2d 1812 by Boydell & Company No 90 Cheapside, London>>; on the image lower centre below inscription in brown ink <<B+Co>> See image below
Condition: fair, some foxing, top left corner of the support missing and repaired tears of the support borders. Printed on laid paper with no watermark visible. A deluxe impression with original hand-colouring and Josiah Boydell’s company mark inscribed in ink on the support.
Description: Nelson on his deathbed below deck of the HMS Victory, surrounded by his closest colleagues. On the far left an officer helps a seaman who is laden with captured enemy flags. The publication of the engraving was announced in The Times on 15 August 1812 at the price of 3 pounds, 3 shillings as a companion piece to the engraving after Copley’s Death of General Wolfe and of the same size. Etching and engraving after the painting by Arthur Devis in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, see image below
Reference: Harry Parker, Naval Battles, T.H. Parker, London, 1911, 175o