Captain Thomas Hastings HMS Naval Frigates at Sea

An original 1805 watercolour painting, Captain Thomas Hastings, HMS Naval Frigates at Sea.

An impressive maritime watercolour in grisaille, dated August 1805, by Captain Thomas Hastings (1778–1854). Centrally depicted is a two-decked frigate negotiating stormy seas. The location of this naval view at sea is unknown. An etching by Hastings of a similar naval subject (in the collection of Royal Museums Greenwich) is dated 1804 and shows a storm off the Cape of Good Hope. A slightly later watercolour, dating from November 1805, places Hastings at Sidmouth in Devon.This fine grisaille painting shares qualities with Hasting's Greenwich etching, which Marianne A. Yule (Hasting's brief biographer) describes thus: 'Sharp contrasts between dark and light accentuate the depth and height of the waves of the stormy sea, as they are about to engulf the dwarfed ship; numerous intermediate shades suggest overlapping layers in the water and clouds'.The verso of the painting is inscribed indistinctly, 'T. Barnett to H.L. Hunter (?)'. The meaning of this is unknown—there was a Henry Lannoy Hunter Esq. of Beech Hill, Berkshire, who was of the South Sea Company around that time.On watercolour paper.