The HMS Barfleur

This superb maritime scene is an archetypal Monamy painting, depicting a three-deck gunship of the Royal Navy, proudly flying the Union Jack. The turbulent sea and dark clouds hint at stormy weather, through which the gunship bravely persists. As is characteristic of his works, Monamy employs a great level of detail in his diligent depiction of the flagship, depicting the Red Squadron flag, wreathed gunports and a heavily ornamented stern. In fact, the level of detail is so particular, that it has been possible to tentatively identify the ship as the HMS Barfleur.

The HMS Barfleur was a three-decker second-rate 90-gun ship, aligning with the specification of the ship depicted in this work. The ship was built in the late 1690s, when wreathed gunports were the fashion, and was still in service for the 1707 deployment of the new Red Squadron flag, sported on the ship’s stern. The flying of this flag indicates the presence of the Commander in Chief on board, specifically the Admiral of the Fleet, who was also likely the Admiral of the Red. The HMS Barfleur was the flagship for George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, from 1718 onwards. The ship played a prominent role as the flagship in the Battle of Cape Passaro, a decisive victory against the Spanish in the War of the Quadruple Alliance. Crucially, Byng was known to have commissioned five large paintings from Monamy in the mid-1720s, celebrating his naval victories – what better a victory to celebrate than his first as Admiral of the Fleet? It is likely, therefore, that the above image is one of Byng’s commissions.


Peter Monamy
Peter Monamy was born in London in 1681, the youngest son of a Guernseyman. Trained originally in house decoration, Peter Monamy was probably largely self-taught as a marine painter. His style closely followed that of Willem van de Velde the younger.

Monamy was working after the van de Velde family and other Dutch painters, who had come to work in England, had heightened interest in shipping pictures and created a growing market for them.

He emerged with Samuel Scott as one of the two leading figures in the first generation of British marine painters, although his range of work is uneven in quality. He worked industriously for at least 40 years and left a wealth of paintings illustrating the nation’s naval history and recording a wide range of ships of the first half of the 18th century.

In 1726, he was elected Liveryman of the Company of Painter-Stainers to which he presented a very large painting of the ‘Royal Sovereign at anchor’ which still remains in their collection. Although his paintings usually depict actual ships, they rarely record specific events as, up until 1739, his career coincided with a long period of peace.