This is another very fine maritime etching by the celebrated marine artist, William Lionel Wyllie. It dates to 1912.
Wyllie was born in London in 1851. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools (1866-69), where he won the Turner Medal in his final year. He worked as a marine illustrator for the Graphic between 1870 and 1890.
Wyllie was Marine Painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, and did much work, including posters, for the Orient Company, the White Star Line and the Union Castle Line.
Between 1924 and 1930 he worked on a fabulous panoramic oil painting depicting the Battle of Trafalgar for the Victory Museum, Portsmouth.
This fine etching shows an image of HMS Orion in the dockyard at Portsmouth. You can see HMS Victory in the distance.
Dimensions. Frame Size: 50.5 x 39.5 cm Image size is 27.5 x 20 cm.
HISTORY:
HMS Orion was the lead ship of her class of four dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. She spent the bulk of her career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets, generally serving as a flagship. Aside from participating in the failed attempt to intercept the German ship that had bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in late 1914 and in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916.
After the Grand Fleet was dissolved in early 1919, Orion was transferred back to the Home Fleet for a few months before she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet. She served as a gunnery training ship from mid-1921 until she was listed for disposal the following year. The ship was sold for scrap in late 1922 and subsequently broken up.
This work is NOT a reproduction but an original pencil signed drypoint and etching.
As you can see from my images - it is a very fine impression with beautiful dark tones and rich velvety burr to the drypoint. The details are just exquisite and it is certainly an impression of museum quality. It is printed on clean cream wove paper, and is in very good condition.
Please feel free to ask me any further questions, and more images can be provided on request for serious interest.
It has recently been professionally framed with a new acid-free museum-quality window mount and simple black frame. It is all ready for you just to hang on your wall.
The postage quoted here is for UK Royal Mail Next Day Special Delivery so your print is insured in transit to you.