Thomas Whitcombe

(British, 1760-1824)

The merchantman Medina of London in two positions off Dover

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, UK
Anon. sale, Christie's London, 19th November 1982, lot 63
With David S. Ramus Ltd, Atlanta, ref 1984.78
With Faustus Gallery, London
Private collection, USA

This painting was probably commissioned to celebrate the Medina's completion and maiden voyage. Whitcombe was an expert portraitist of ships, employing even lighting and very fine brushwork to convey every detail of structure and rigging. The name Medina . London is carved across the stern in the right-hand view of the vessel. In the background, the white cliffs of Dover gleam in the sun: a poignant symbol of England for shipping departing for, or arriving from, long and hazardous voyages.

A full-rigged merchantman of 469 tons, the Medina was built at Topsham, Devon in 1811 and owned by Davy & Co. of London who put her into the Jamaica trade under the command of Captain Kenneday. In 1820-21 she was sold to Haymans and made voyages to Bombay under her new master, Captain Hayley. She then transferred to the London-New South Wales route.

In 1830 the Medina carried goods and emigrants to the newly-founded Swan River Colony in Western Australia. Intended as a 'free' colony for farmers rather than a penal colony like Sydney, the Swan River Colony was claimed for Britain by Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger on 2nd May 1829. The towns of Perth and Fremantle were named in August. The Medina, commanded by her master Captain Walter Pace, arrived in Fremantle on 16th July 1830. In 1832 Pace settled in Western Australia and a suburb of Kwinana on the Swan River was later named in the Medina's honour. Medina's many long voyages took their toll and by 1834 she was laid up in the Port of London, where she was sold for £9,500.

Thomas Whitcombe painted major naval battles from the American War of Independence to the Napoleonic Wars, recording the battle of the Saintes, Camperdown and the Nile, among others. He was skilled at painting the majestic and deadly array of ships drawn up in battle line.

Little is known of Thomas Whitcombe's life, despite his eminence as a marine painter. His output was large, and he contributed greatly to recording the naval side of the French Revolutionary wars. He produced watercolours for fifty-four plates of The Naval Achievements of Great Britain, published in 1817, and made paintings for at least one hundred more wartime engravings, as well as depicting peaceful subjects such as coastal scenes.

Whitcombe exhibited one painting at the British Institution, in 1820. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1783 to 1824, working from London addresses.