page_title: John Gell (Royal Navy officer)
section_title: Captain Gell
hierarchical_section_title: John Gell (Royal Navy officer) / Biography / Captain Gell
caption_attribution_description: Caption from the museum's website In 1785 the British naval officer John Gell (1738–1806) had just completed his duty on the seventy-gun Monarca, which he had commanded in a series of battles against the French. For this portrait, Stuart used as a model Sir Joshua Reynolds’s heroic "Commodore Augustus Keppel" (1752; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK). In homage to Reynolds, Stuart employed a combination of fine and slapdash brushwork, conveying an image of both heroism and naturalism. He exhibited "Captain John Gell" at London’s Royal Academy of Arts in 1785, when the British portraitist John Hoppner commented that it was “admirably well-painted without trickery to dazzle the eye or mislead the judgment.”
context_page_description: Admiral John Gell was from the Gell and Eyre families of Hopton Hall in Derbyshire. He served with the Royal Navy, fighting in India and taking part in the occupation of Toulon.
  Gell was a commander in the Royal Navy for over thirty years starting in 1762 following two years as a lieutenant. He was promoted to the
  rank of admiral in 1799 after completing duties in Nova Scotia, Portugal, Genoa, the East Indies and Toulon.
  In 1793, Gell's squadron captured a Spanish ship which contained two million dollars and packages valued at over 200,000 pounds.
context_section_description: In 1776 he was appointed captain of the three-year-old HMS Thetis. With this ship he served in the American, The Mediterranean and the Channel Fleets until he was given command of the Monarca. This ship was unusual in that it had been built in 1756 and for the first 24 years it had been part of the Spanish Navy before being captured by the British at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1780. Gell who was under the orders of Sir Samuel Hood to go to the West Indies. However the ship lost its mast in a storm and was obliged to return to Britain for refitting.
  Gell was off the Indian coast during Sir Edward Hughes' five actions against the French admiral Bailli de Suffren when Gell was in command of the 68 gunHMS Monarca.
  Gell and the Monarca did take part in the Battle of Cuddalore on 20 June 1783. The battle was the last of the American Revolutionary War between a rival French and British fleet. The battle which took place off the coast of India near Cuddalore was inconclusive and was remarkable in that peace had already been signed in Europe, but the news had not been heard in Asia. The 200 or so soldiers killed were lost to a war already abandoned.
  Gell returned to Europe in 1784 and received no command until 1790 when he was appointed to his last captaincy, of HMS Excellent.
caption: The 1785 portrait by Gilbert Stuart.
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