Peter MONAMY (1681-1749)

The Royal Yacht Peregrine with the Royal Escape in the Background

oil on canvas

25 ½ x 20 inches

Price: Sold

The paintings of Peter Monamy provide an important record of maritime history in the first half of the eighteenth century. His early style was considerably influenced by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), some of whose works he copied.

Born in London in 1681, the youngest son of a Guernseyman, Monamy was apprenticed to William Clarke, a member of the Painter Stainers' Company; he became a Freeman of the Company in 1704. Monamy’s professional training was in house decoration and comprised the decoration of ceilings, painting canvases for wall panels, sign painting and gilding. In 1736 Monamy, together with William Hogarth and Francis Hayman, was commissioned to assist in the decorations of the newly-opened pleasure gardens at Vauxhall; all four of his paintings were subsequently engraved. Encouraged by Hogarth, Monamy also produced a major port scene for Thomas Coram's Foundling Hospital.

George Vertue noted with approval Monamy’s ‘constant practice….his industry and understanding in the forms and buildings of shipping with all the tackles, ropes and sails….his neatness and clean pencilling of sky and water….his many excursions to the coasts and seaports of England to improve himself from nature’.

Monamy produced work for the Royal family, for the aristocracy and gentry, for City merchants and livery halls. Taking up a tradition which he had inherited from Dutch painters, the van de Veldes, Monamy nurtured an English school of marine painting and paved the way for Charles Brooking, Nicholas Pocock and later artists.

H.M.S. Peregrine was built in 1686 and later entered the royal fleet I as a sixth rate vessel. Carrying 18 small-caliber cannon, she was lightly armed and was used for royal escort duty and to transport important persons and messages.