A View of Portsmouth c. 1675
Oil on canvas | 91.4 x 207.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 405156
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Danckerts was a landscape painter born and trained in The Hague who had visited Italy before settling in England during the 1660s and 70s. Records show Danckerts receiving payments from the King in the 1675 and 1679, while the inventories of Charles II and James II include landscapes by him, not all of which can now be identified. Danckerts’s executed elegantly composed classical landscapes for the King as well as directly-observed topographical landscapes like this one. This is one of a group of three English port scenes (OM 398-400, RCIN 402821, 406565 and 405156), which may result from Danckerts’s commission from Charles II, mentioned by Buckeridge, ‘to paint all the sea-ports of England and Wales, as also all the Royal Palaces’. Charles II constructed new docks and fortifications at Portsmouth. The idea was presumably that the King could discuss fortifications and such like, without needing a site visit. Charles II certainly did build new docks and fortifications in Portsmouth one of the ports painted in this group. A prospect of Portsmouth from the sea, from one of the forts near Gosport at the harbour mouth; on the left is the dockyard and Rope House; in the centre, a church (possibly the Domus Dei); beyond, the vessels include a yacht watched by a small crowd.
Provenance
Presumably painted for Charles II; three Danckerts views of Portsmouth are recorded in the Old Withdrawing or Green Room at Whitehall in 1688 (nos 98-100, this one is probably no 100, described as 'from the sea'), only two survive in the collection (this and 406565); three are listed at Kensington in 1710, one over the mantle in the Lower Presence Chamber (no 197), and two in Store (nos 142-3); after an interval two emerge in the Anti Room at Hampton Court in 1861 (nos 674-5, this one 675)
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Creator(s)
(nationality)Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
91.4 x 207.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
113.4 x 231.9 x 8.1 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)