Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
Francis Holman, 1760–1790, British
Title:
The Frigate 'Surprise' at Anchor off Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Date:
ca. 1775
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
30 x 57 inches (76.2 x 144.8 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.364
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
ocean | luggers | square-rigged vessels | port | brigantine | longboats | anchor | frigate | hermaphrodite brigs | sloops (sailing vessels) | sails | ships | sea | harbor | boats
Associated Places:
England | Norfolk | United Kingdom | Great Yarmouth
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Spreading Canvas - Eighteenth - Century British Marine Painting (Yale Center for British Art, 2016-09-09 - 2016-12-04)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 122-123, N590.2 A83 (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Seascapes : Yale Center for British Art., , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. [6], no. 24, V 1909 (YCBA) Vertical File

Eleanor Hughes, Spreading Canvas : Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2016, p. 215, cat. 75, ND 1373.G74 S67 2016 (YCBA)

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 49 (v.1), no. 24, pl. 116, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
This coastal view is an example of Francis Holman’s common formula for large works: a panoramic scene in wide rectangular format, with the horizon set no more than a third of the way from the bottom. Above, protruding into an expansive sky, are not only ships’ masts but also the salient features of the often quite distant coast, such as the Yarmouth church spires here, much as navigators would have first seen them when approaching land. Gallery label for Spreading Canvas - Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting (Yale Center for British Art, 2016-09-09 - 2016-12-04)
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:852