Elisha Kirkall: Printmaker & Printseller These two mezzotints are pointedly inscribed W: Vanderveld Jnr. Although several of the other prints also claim to be after W van de Velde (solely the Younger, since none of them appear to reflect the Elder's work), it is possible that slightly more care was devoted to these particular engravings, both after especially well-known paintings and both of which had been repeatedly copied. Because the Younger Van de Velde died in 1707, it is demonstrable that he could not have painted at least one of the scenes on the storms page, see here, where the ship is flying a post-1707 ensign. It supports my instincts to suspect that, as the inheritor of the "van de Velde studio", son Cornelius van de Velde was, to some elastic extent, masquerading under his father's name. It could be argued that Kirkall was merely up-dating the ensign from the original painting by The Younger, but what would be the point? It is much more likely that he was subsuming Cornelius under the general brand name "Vanderveld". The composition below is examined closely on another page. Here. The inscriptions on the series of mezzotints vary slightly, and some are not as informative as this one, magnified below. The number 6 appears on the bottom rh corner of this print; but few, if any, of the others seem to be numbered. Some of them may be cut. At least one more scrap of biography is added, with Kirkall providing his address in Fleet Street. kirkall: battles kirkall: storms baston prints prints, prints, prints © Charles Harrison Wallace 2005
Capital Ships
a first rate under way: owner unidentified
E Collectione Nathanielis Blackerby Armigeri
detail
kirkall: calms & breezes kirkall: capital ships
kirkall's shipping prints: conclusions
the Britannia and/or Royal Sovereign
kirkall's "W: Vanderveld Jnr" mezzotint
hope & glory: what, when, why
The Royal William, or what?
assorted sterns
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