A Royal Navy two-decker off St Helena RMG BHC1093

A Royal Navy two-decker off St Helena
Oil painting showing, towards the right of the image and from a low angle off the bow, a two-decker in near starboard-broadside view. The ship is probably of 74 guns, since she mounts 29 in the main broadside, and is under plain sail before the wind on a moderate sea. The main course is loosely furled up so as not to mask the fore course. The ship appears to have a round fo'csle head above a figurehead of a woman in a flowing but simple white classical-style gown, probably representing an aristocratic or mythological figure. Three white wind vanes fly at the mastheads but no pennant, and there is a red ensign at the peak, though this is mostly lost behind the mizzen course or driver.
Across the horizon behind, and nearly filling the full width of the canvas, looms the impressive bulk of the island of St Helena. The view is from about west-north-west, with most of the precipitous coast and the only town, Jamestown, shown astern of the ship. The height of the cliffs is also emphasized by other shipping, shown small and closer in under the land, and almost in silhouette against the sky to left and right. The lightly clouded sky was originally much bluer, the colour having faded. The picture is signed 'Huggins' lower left with a badly damaged date that may be 1826, but not likely to be much earlier. The perspective of the ship's hull is rather flat and the drawing of the quarter gallery slightly awkward. While the rigging is largely complete and original, some has also clearly been done in a rather perfunctory way, using a straight edge but without detailed finishing where the lines join spars. This suggests it may in part be studio work, given that Huggins also trained two sons and his son-in-law, Edward Duncan. The island view is essentially the same as PAI7244, which is an 1832 a print after an oil view by Huggins then in the Royal Collection.
The commercially prepared canvas is unlined and has old tear damage at two points, repaired by paper patching behind and repainting. Removal of overpaint at one of these shows the bright original blue of the sky (also visible, as more common, at points along the frame-edge): this suggests that the damage and repair were relatively early in the picture's life. Chalk inscriptions on the stretcher read '19th century Indiaman' which was how it was previously described (and as by an unknown artist) and '845 FRIGATE'. It is neither of these, though St Helena was a port of call for outward and howeward bound Indiamen and warships: the 845 may be an old lot number. The Huggins signature was only found in April 2011 after old facing paper (inhibiting flaking on the lower canvas) was removed for record photography.

The original stretcher also bears a fragmentary and fairly crudely printed label top centre 'C. ------/ Carver..../Glass & Picture [Frame]/ Maker / 21 Bedford St. / Bedford Row'. This is stuck over an earlier and rather better printed label of which only the last line is visible ('Oil frames...'etc). Jacob Simon of the National Portrait Gallery (April 2011) has kindly suggested the upper label is likely to be that of Charles Parman, a carver and gilder, printseller and looking glass dealer who is known to have been at 2 Bedford Street, Bedford Square, London, in 1789, and was at 21 Bedford Street, Bedford Row, 1790-1837. He features in Beard and Gilbert's 'Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840' (1986) and is also likely to be the Charles Parman, born in 1757, who died in that area (St Pancras) in 1840. Given that there is a better printed and presumably earlier label hidden underneath, which is likely to be the original canvas supplier's, Parman may either have framed the picture, been asked to organize repair at an early point, or it may simply have passed comercially through his hands. But he and Huggins were not close neighbours, since Bedford Row is in Bloomsbury and Huggins was based in Leadenhall Street in the City of London. [PvdM 4/11]