The Funeral Car (relates to Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson)
17 of 28 portraits matching these criteria:
- subject matching 'Regency War Heroes and Military Martyrs'
© National Portrait Gallery, London
The Funeral Car (relates to Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson)
after Unknown artist
wood engraving, circa 1806
7 1/4 in. x 4 5/8 in. (185 mm x 119 mm) paper size
Reference Collection
NPG D10682
This portraitback to top
Nelson's funeral took place on Thursday 9 January 1806. Every part of the ceremony was planned for maximum iconic impact. This simple wood engraving illustrating the ornate funeral car would have been designed for cheap mass-production as a memorial of the day. Constructed to suggest the battleship Victory on which Nelson died, the car was decorated with a figurehead representing Fame. The coffin inside was made from the mainmast of l'Orient - the French flagship blown up during the Battle of the Nile (1798) - which Nelson had kept as a souvenir. Sailors from the Victory walked ahead of the car carrying the white flag that the ship had flown off Cape Trafalgar, opening it periodically to show the shot-holes to the reverent crowds.
Related worksback to top
- NPG D5357: Nelson's funeral car (Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson) (from same plate)
Subjects & Themesback to top
Events of 1806back to top
Current affairs
William Pitt dies in January and his lifelong opponent Charles James Fox dies in September. Pitt is succeeded by William Wyndham, Baron Grenville, who forms the 'Ministry of all the Talents' coalition .Prince of Wales instigates the 'Delicate Investigation'; a Parliamentary enquiry into claims that his wife Caroline had an illegitimate child.
Art and science
John Constable embarks on a formative tour of the Lakes and makes landscape studies of the Langdale Pikes and Helvellyn.Turner exhibits his Thames views to acclaim at his own London gallery.
Humphrey Davy discovers the elements potassium and sodium by passing an electrical current through molten compounds.
International
Soprano Angelica Catalani arrives from Italy to make her London debut, amazing audiences with her showpiece arias.Napoleon turns his forces east against Austria, Russia and Prussia and enjoys a wave of French victories.
British attack on Buenos Aires under General William Beresford fails.
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