Jean Antoine Théodore Gudin,
 
French 1802-1880-
 
The Battle of Alicudi...

Jean Antoine Théodore Gudin,

French 1802-1880-

The Battle of Alicudi Off Stromboli, 8th January 1676;

oil on canvas, signed and dated '1845' (lower right), bears inscription 'Gudin 1845 / Combat naval en ... / Naples' (on an old label attached to the reverse of the stretcher), 59 x 81.2 cm.

Provenance: Anon. sale, Bonhams, London, 10 August 2000, lot 239.; With Royal Exchange Art Gallery, London.; Where purchased by the present owners in July 2001.

Note: In the wake of his successful first exhibition at the Salon in 1822, Gudin gained the patronage of King Louis Philippe I who commissioned him to paint around eighty works depicting celebrated French naval battles, to eventually be displayed in the Palace of Versailles. The frenetic naval scene described in the present work is likely to have been completed when Gudin was based in Berlin from around 1845.

The Battle of Alicuri, also known as the Battle of Stromboli, took place on 8 January 1676 during the Franco-Dutch War between a French fleet of twenty ships under Abraham Duquesne and a combined fleet of nineteen allied ships (eighteen Dutch and one Spanish ship) under Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter in a combat that lasted eight hours and ended inconclusively. The fleets fought again at the Battle of Augusta in April of that year. In a highly dramatic composition, Gudin has depicted the French and Dutch ships engaged in naval combat, with Mount Stromboli emitting clouds of smoke in the distance. The two principal ships are surrounded by smoke as shells are fired from the canons and figures are pulled from the churning waters.