The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-06 00:00:00

"THE VICTORY" AT GIBRALTAR.
BY CLARKSON STANFIELD, R.A.

, A national picture of really extraordinary in-
-14 ,rest, and, happily, of no less extraordinary merit
!S a work of art, the production of a rare and cul-
mated genius, is now, we are given to understand,
c.,11 the eve of publication. The original painting
from the hand of Clarkson Stanfield, the Royal
Academician, a masterpiece now on view at 23,
ockspur-street, we ourselves have had the grati-
Nation of examining very carefully. The engrav-
ing from it, an engraving in the highest style of art,
and the issue of which may be shortly expected, will
be published, we observe, by the enterprising firm
?! Thomas Agnew and Sons, of Exchange-street,
Blanchester. Having, ourselves, as already inti-
taated,
inspected within the last few days the ori-
ginal picture from the easel of our distinguished
artist, we are empowered to speak of it, if not in
terms befitting its remarkable beauty and varied ex-
cellence, at any rate, in language expressive in some
degree of our unaffected admiration. The Paint-
ing represents " The Victory" as it appeared on the
28th of Oct., 1805, when, having the bodyof Nelson
°II board, it was towed into Gibraltar seven days after
the Battle of Trafalgar. An incident, surely, in-
vested with the charms of many moving associations.
ta occurrence the portraiture of which nearly
half-a-century afterwards cannot be regarded with-
out peculiar emotion by any one bearing the name
and carrying in his heart the historical memories
of an Englishman. Seldom, if ever, has art
more nobly or more touchingly offered its homage
to heroism than in this masterly tribute proffered
Y the genius of Clarkson Stanfield to the glorious
shade of the victor of Trafalgar. It is worthy of a sea-
Painter who himself in his earlier years, before the
Allise of Colour had awakened his intellectual am-
bition, served his country under the ocean-banner
of his Sovereign. None but a sailor could have so
sYmbolised a sailor's apotheosis. According to the
statements of the most reliable of our maritime
annalists, we are told that within a week
after the immortal triumph of our arms at Tra-
falgar, many of the disabled war-vessels which
had taken part in the great battle—bringing
amongst them the only four prizes Collingwood
Was enabled to rescue from the fury of the gale
Which raged immediately afterwards—dropped in
one by one, and cast anchor as they assembled to-
gether in the roadstead of Gibraltar. Gradually—
so at least asserts one of these marine historians—
the whole anchorage became covered with these
battered vessels of ours—with no less than six dis-
inasted hulls lying within the mole, their
axles beaten in, their guns dismounted, their
Port-holes shattered when, at last, on the
seventh day after the encounter, on the even-
ing of the 28th of October, 1805, the glorious
form of the Admiral's ship, " The Victory," having
an board the remains of Nelson, was towed into
%braltar by H.M.S. the "Neptune." A fitting
kisociation of names—Nelson, conducted by Nep-
tbine, in the bosom of Victory, in the calm hour of
twilight, into the peaceful bay of the impregnable
Gibraltar! As the " Victory" approached Gibraltar
at this proud moment"—writes Harris Nicolas—
(c ,no shout of exultation was heard, no joyous
lelioitations were exchanged, for the lowered
flag which waved on the Victory's' mast
rnarlzed where the mourned hero lay, and
oast a deepened shade over the triumphant
hour
Mr. Stanfield has caught the spirit of the
nour with the dyes of his magic palette—the sun is
sinking low on the horizon among cloudland, the
sea rolling heavily under the influence of the gale
but then recently abated. At the moment selected
by the artist, the " Neptune" has just altered
her course, the tow-rope is slackened, and the
" Victory," in the apt and expressive words of
the eloquent prospectus placed in our hands
When we stood before the original painting,
" heaves forward on the old track with a
passive helplessness." Everything is in keeping—
the sad and clouded sky ; the sullen rolling of the
waters ; the distant glimpse here of the dismasted
hulls in the mole, there of the disabled vessels in
the anchorage ; the seamen swarming about the
deck of the Victory, " Nelson's ship," healing her
iriany wounds with cord, and nail, and hammer ;
thte very flags flapping and snapping in the breeze,
hulf-mast high ; the smoke of the minute gun,
fired from the rugged and sombre mass of the
great rock of Gibraltar in the background—nay,
the very groups introduced in the front of the pic-
ture:, in the fishing boats rocking about on the bil-
lowy- deep, soma Africans, some Europeans, sugges-
tive by that contrast of the locality between the
pillars of Hercules, between the approaching points
of the two vast continents. Nothing is out of place
or discordant in these manifold accessories. Every-
thing harmonises with the solemnity of the incident
depicted, and thissimply because everything is most
accurately and. most truthfully portrayed. Rightly
therefore may we speak of this remarkable pic-
ture, as in fact, nothing less than a national
naastorpiece. Engraved, in line, by Mr. John
Cousen, the work of art here mentioned, is secure
of attaining, we doubt not, a wide and lasting
popularity immediately the Messrs. Agnew and
Sorts, of Manchester, are in a position to announce
the circumstance of its publication. For the
existence of the picture the public are indebted,
"we believe, to a commission given to the artist by
Samuel Morton Peto, M.P. for the Borough of
Norwich—a man whose name is already highly
estimated among his fellow-countrymen as one
associated with many acts indicative of extraordi-
nary enterprise and but-seldom-paralleled munifi-
cence.