Thomas Luny

(British, 1759-1837)

A frigate and other shipping in the Channel

Footnotes

Provenance
The Collection of Willis Group, global insurance brokers

The present lot shows a thirty-six gun frigate on the wind in the Channel, with the white cliffs of Dover at background left. She wears a red ensign. Alongside is a three-masted lugger, transporting someone or something to the ship. In the foreground, a two-masted lugger has struck her mainsail and rows into the wind, keeping the mizzen up to steady the boat. In the right distance is a cutter. In the left background is an anchored merchantman, sails loosely furled, perhaps awaiting a convoy in the Downs. She is distinguishable as a merchant ship by her single row of guns and broad stern with two sets of stern windows. In contrast to warships, merchantmen were built for capaciousness and comfort, rather than speed. In addition to valuable cargoes, their captains carried passengers who paid a hefty fee for accommodation in the beautiful stern cabins, which could be almost as richly furnished as a Mayfair town house. This ship wears a red ensign, suggesting that she is a West Indiaman, not one of the East India Company's fleet, which would have worn the Company's red and white striped ensign.

In wartime British merchant ships, although they carried guns, were prey for French warships and indeed for pirates who robbed and murdered whatever the state of international relations. Convoys of merchantmen sailed together for safety, escorted by warships, although the overstretched Navy could spare few ships for convoy duty and sluggardly merchantmen scattered over a wide stretch of sea were often picked off by the enemy. The calm sea in this painting gives a wonderful impression of the silvery light and moisture-laden atmosphere of the Channel, filled with spiralling clouds and the beautiful vessels of the age of sail.

Report based on information on topography and details of shipping by Roger Quarm of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and Roger Marsh.

Thomas Luny was the son of Thomas Luny and his wife Elizabeth Wallace. He was probably born in Cornwall and was baptised at St Ewe near Mevagissey on 20th May 1759. His mother had a son from a previous marriage, Captain James Wallace (1754-1832), who served with Nelson at Copenhagen in 1801. By 1773 Luny was apprenticed to the marine painter Francis Holman (1729-1784), giving Holman's address at Johnson Street, St George's when he sent his first exhibit to the Society of Artists in 1777. In 1781/82 he moved to Ratcliffe Highway, Stepney. Luny exhibited at the Society of Artists again in 1778, at the Free Society in 1783 and sent pictures to the Royal Academy from 1780 to 1793. He painted London views, portraits of East Indiamen and battle scenes.

Luny exhibited no works between 1793 and 1802 and it was once thought that he served as a purser in the Royal Navy; this has now been discounted. His painting subjects suggest that he travelled, but there is no direct evidence for this except a visit to Paris in 1777. In 1791 he bought a property at 16 Mark Lane, between Leadenhall Street and the Thames, and by 1795 he was earning enough to invest regularly in government stocks. In mid-1807 he moved (probably for reasons of health) to Teignmouth, a fashionable watering place on the Devon coast popular with retired naval officers. A number of them became friends and patrons, notably Captain George Tobin, an amateur artist. In 1808-9 he built a handsome house on the harbour front in Teign Street, later called Luny House.

Luny was a prolific producer of Devon coastal views, shipping scenes and naval events, despite suffering so severely from arthritis that he had to paint with the brush strapped to his wrist. He sent a Battle of the Nile to the Royal Academy in 1802 and three paintings in 1837, the year that there was an exhibition of 130 of his paintings in Old Bond Street. Luny died at Teignmouth on 30th September 1837.