Palermo School, circa 1799

Profile portrait of Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), in profile facing left, wearing the Chelengk presented by Emperor Selim III in his bicorn, displaying his Naval gold medals, the Ottoman Order of the Crescent and the Order of the Bath
charcoal and sanguine
charcoal and sanguine
17.8 x 12.7cm

Provenance:
Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769-1839), to whom reputedly given by Nelson
his nephew, William Mansfield (1832-1892), Portesham House, Dorset
his son, William Hardy Manfield (1859-1937) who married Julia Mary Manfield (née Butlin, 1881-1974), who was the great aunt of the current owners

Exhibited:
Dorchester County Museum, 24th-29th July, 1905, 'Dorchester and the Navy. An interesting and important local exhibition in connection with the coming Trafalgar Centenary'

Literature:
'Dorchester and the Navy. An interesting and important local exhibition in connection with the coming Trafalgar Centenary', in The King, July 29th 1905
A.M. Broadley & R.G. Bartelot, The Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar (1906), p. 60
Richard Walker, The Nelson Portraits/An Iconography of Horatio Viscount Nelson, K.B. Vice Admiral of the White, (1998) No. 98, pp. 94-99 and 230, ill. p. 97
Terry Coleman, Nelson, The Man and the Legend (2002 edition) illustrated between pp. 332 and 333

According to family tradition the present drawing (along with that of King Ferdinand IV of Naples, in this sale, lot 42, and a group of miniatures of about the same date) were given by Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson to Captain Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, his close comrade, in whose arms he famously died at the Battle of Trafalgar. This was supposedly done with instructions for framing the drawing and orders for copies to be made for his friends. It appears that one of these copies belonged to Captain Savage of the Marines (afterwards Major-General Sir J Boscawen Savage) who lent it to Thomas Burke for a stipple engraving to be made, which was lettered: 'Engraved by Burke from an original drawing taken at Palermo/in possession of Capt.n J.G. Savage of Marines/Baron Nelson of the Nile/Published by John Brydon No 7 Charing Cross, London 1st August 1800'. The present work that belonged to Hardy is briefly mentioned in a letter to his legal adviser and brother-in-law, dated 7 January, 1801 aboard the San Josef at Hamoaze:

'Dear Manfield ... I am happy the prints please. A Register Stove & Carpet with the Hero of the Nile's Picture (which Jno. Brown will of course get) cannot fail to make it the Handsomest Drawing Room in Dorchester. The King of Naples's Picture will follow from Mr M'Arthur...'

Both the drawing of Nelson and that of King Ferdinand of Naples (lot 42) which was by family tradition discovered hidden behind the portrait of Nelson) were in the Hardy Manfield collection at Portesham House and now belong to a collateral descendant. Variants of the Nelson portrait are in the Monmouth Museum (R. Walker, op. cit., No. 100, p. 230) and the Royal Naval Museum (ibid. No. 97, p. 229). Although Hardy was evidently pleased with the drawing, the accuracy of its resemblance to the Admiral was questioned by Hardy's nephew, John Manfield when, as a midshipman he was invited to dine on board the Victory: in his diary for the 5 August 1804, he wrote: 'I dined with Lord Nelson, Admiral Murray and Captain Hardy and I assure you your picture is not the least like his Lordship.' Walker suggests that 'There is an Italianate cast to his features that find an echo in the Italian proverb, Inglese italianato, Diavolo incarnato, though this is perhaps too emphatic for this ponderous and rather ludicrous figure. A nearer assessment is given by a modern correspondent in The Times, who says, "the artist has in this case turned Nelson into a complete macaroni."' (A 'macaroni' in this sense was someone who adopted a particular effete and affected style of appearance that became fashionable from the 1770s.) These commentaries on the drawing underline its unique importance as an immediate and personal representation of Nelson's appearance from a local perspective, marking it apart from the better known, more staid and formal depictions of the celebrated hero.

The drawing of Nelson is widely purported to have been drawn during Nelson's stay in Palermo between January 1799 and June 1800. In a dramatic escape during tempestuous weather on the 23rd December, 1798, and with the grim fate of the Queen's sister, Marie Antoinette, in vivid memory, King Ferdinand and Queen Maria Carolina left their home in Naples ahead of the impending French invasion, escorted by Nelson and accompanied by Thomas Hardy (along with Sir William and Emma Lady Hamilton and the King's favourite dogs). The British ship the Vanguard (of which Hardy was captain) reached Palermo with its large convoy on the 26th. The royal couple had been heavily criticised for abandoning their capital and seeking refuge in Palermo, instead of risking humiliation and expulsion, or even violent death. By going to Palermo, however, they remained on their own sovereign territory, which they were able to use as a base for recovering the rest of the realm: indeed, Nelson had advised this course, and he was no coward. The royal couple have also been castigated for removing as many valuables as possible, but the simple alternative was to leave them for the French, who had already appropriated a number of Italy's most significant treasures.

In the end the Neapolitan (or Pathenopean) Republic proved temporary and the rebels capitulated to Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo's counter-revolutionary 'Christian army of the Holy Faith', with the support of Russian and Turkish ships. In his The Bourbons of Naples, Harold Acton wrote of how in August 1799, following this victory 'The King had sailed into Palermo with Nelson on the Foudroyant and received acclamations worthy of a hero. The Queen and her children dined on board in the glitter and noise of a flaming noon, and the whole party landed to the salutes of twenty-one guns on a special stage of gilded stucco where the senators in rich robes awaited them; then they drove in state to the cathedral for the solemn Te Deum amid thousands of cheering citizens. Palermo was drunk but not disorderly, as the Queen wrote to Ruffo. The fireworks, illuminations and festivities that followed merged into the celebrations of the city's patron saint Rosalia, which were never more magnificent.' The Queen rewarded the Hamiltons with jewels and other lavish gifts reputed to be worth £6,000; while the King bestowed on Nelson a sword with a jewelled hilt worth 3,000 guineas and the Sicilian duchy and domain of Bronte, on the outskirts of Mount Etna, whose annual revenue was calculated at £3,000. At this time Emma Hamilton had acted as a go-between, conveying messages from the Queen to Nelson and from Nelson to the Queen and it was during this period that Nelson became besotted with Emma. It was also in August 1799 that the Ottoman Sultan Selim III specially created the Order of the Crescent for Nelson, making him its first Knight and sending him the insignia that month. He is seen wearing the order in the present portrait and it was mostly likely in this celebratory context that this drawing was commissioned.

The distinctive Chelengk seen here prominently displayed on Nelson's bicorn, was a plume of more than 300 diamonds with a unique rotating central feature surrounded by exquisite enamelled flowers. Like the Order of the Crescent it was presented to Nelson by Sultan Selim III in recognition of his daring 1798 defeat of the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile, when Egypt was still under the control of the Ottoman Empire. At the time, a Chelengk was a type of military medal highly prized across the Ottoman world. As the first such decoration ever presented by the Sultan to a non-Muslim, Nelson's Chelengk was the subject of great pride to him: crowned by 13 diamond sprigs representing the number of ships sunk by Nelson during the historic battle, it was one of his most cherished possessions which he wore like a traditional turban ornament and which was later included in his coat-of-arms. Nelson is also shown wearing his prized flag officer's gold medal for the victory at the Nile in this portrait.