Horatio Nelson

Sitterback to top

• Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805), Vice-Admiral and victor of Trafalgar. Sitter associated with 84 portraits.

Artistback to top

• Guy Head (1753-1800). Artist associated with 9 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Coming from a modest background, the Nelson of popular imagination was a humane commander who had the common touch and ignored the divisions of rank or faction. In this portrait of 1798-9 he appears with one of his midshipmen at the moment of victory during the famous Battle of the Nile (1798). The younger man hands over the French admiral's sword wrapped in a captured French flag. In the background two battle-scarred ships fly white ensigns hoisted over French tricolours under a dramatic stormy sky. The portrait, which commemorates one of the most decisive victories in English naval history, is based on life studies made by Guy Head, who met Nelson in Naples soon after the event. The portrait shows Nelson's earlier loss of an arm but the artist has taken the licence of showing Nelson otherwise unscathed, though in truth his forehead should have been bandaged as a result of the serious wounds he received. By the end of battle, Nelson had been wounded above his right eye, was bandaged, bloodstained and exhausted and far from the polished officer at ease on his quarterdeck.

Linked publicationsback to top

• Cooper, John, Great Britons: The Great Debate, 2002, p. 90
• Holmes, Richard; Crane, David; Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantics and Revolutionaries: Regency portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, 2002, p. 105
• Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 455
• Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, 1997 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 8 November 1996 - 9 February 1997), p. 68

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

• Nelson: before and after Trafalgar (2 July 2005 - 11 December 2005)

Subjects & Themesback to top

• Disability
• Double portraits
• Regency War Heroes and Military Martyrs
• Transport and vehicles