Horatio Nelson at Palermo, 1799 RMG PW4381

Horatio Nelson at Palermo, 1799
Inscribed and dated in ink (not by the artist) lower left, 'C.Grignon Naples 1797'. Originally framed with a lock of hair and note of presentation. The drawing shows Nelson as a rear-admiral, in undress uniform with the ribbon and star of the Order of the Bath, after the Battle of the Nile in 1798. According to George Cumberland's memoir of Grignion in 'The Monthly Magazine', 1 November 1809, p. 55, it was in fact drawn at Palermo on 7 February 1799 after Grignion had dined there with Sir William Hamilton (see Walker 'Nelson Portraits', pp. 94-5; ill. no 95). Grignion gave it to his brother Thomas (d. 1821), a London watchmaker, from whom it passed to Commander James Bremer RN a relative and the latter's executor. He presented it to the Royal United Services Institution Museum, London, in 1832 and it was transferred to the NMM in 1962 when that closed. There are three subsequent prints from it, two being lithographs (PAD3759, PAD3760) and an inferior engraving (PAD4155), possibly not done from the original drawing. All these quote the 'Naples 1797' date - which is impossible for other reasons - and was presumably mistakenly added some time after Grignion gave it to his brother. Bremer also presented three other Grignion drawings to the RUSI of Sir William and Lady Hamilton, and Captain Cook, in 1832 (though apparently as a separate gift from the note in the RUSI proceedings). If these were still there in 1962 they were not on the 'List of Maritime Items' in it of which the Museum has a copy and on which the Nelson drawing was no. 646. Thomas Grignion's will shows that Charles also painted a portrait of Cook after that by Nathaniel Dance between 1781 and 1783, which Thomas intended to leave to the British Museum (though probably not delivered) but since he lived in Rome from 1781 it must have been from prints or some secondary version: the Cook drawing may relate to it.

Grignion (1754-1804) was a portraitist and miniaturist, who at about the same time did two good pensive miniatures of Hamilton and a profile portrait drawing of Emma Hamilton, the last engraved by Vincenzo Aloja. In Walker's view, Nelson's hairstyle in this good drawing in similar mood tends to confirm the 1799 dating, which there is no other reason to doubt. In 1776 Grignion had won the Royal Academy's s gold medal for his painting 'The Choice of Hercules', making him eligible for a travel grant for three years' study in Rome: he went in April 1781 and lived in Italy for the rest of his life as a painter, guide to 'Grand Tourists' and dealer.