port detail from hudson portrait
with added local colour: a montage
the capture of louisbourg 1745, by peter monamy; national maritime museumA dead certainty that Captain Philip Durell, who had been with Warren at Louisbourg in 1745 and sent back a glowing report of the port's capture, told the Admiral that the only man to paint the background detail in Hudson's portrait was a decayed and ailing old dauber, only a few months away from his death. Or perhaps it was the cheapest option. The catalogue annotation dates the portrait to circa 1747-48. Monamy's Capture of Louisbourg must have been painted at about the same time as the Nottingham captures the Mars. The wheel had turned full circle, and after 30 years Monamy ended as he had begun, filling in background detail for a portrait painter. Below is Lord Berkeley, Admiral of the Fleet, circa 1719.
school of kneller, circa 1719, shipping signed monamy"In Holland, selfishness is the ruling passion; in England vanity is united with it. Portrait painting therefore ever has, and ever will succeed better in this Country than in any other; the demand will be as constant as new faces arise; and with this we must be contented, for it will be in vain to attempt to force what can never be accomplished; or at least can never be accomplished by such institutions as Royal Academies on the system now in agitation." Anecdotes of William Hogarth, p.30.
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