English: An English yacht sailing into an imagined British harbour
(Updated, July 2016) Previously called 'An English yacht sailing into Plymouth' this lively scene is in fact a capriccio - a decorative invented composition showing a late-Stuart royal yacht sailing into a rocky harbour, apparently under British control from the flags of the ships and the very worn one that can still just be seen flying from the fort on the left.The fanciful landscape and Italianate buildings suggest the harbour is Mediterranean but it does not resemble an obvious place under British control at the period. The yacht is letting its topsail fly as it slows down entering the anchorage and tows a small boat astern on a lively sea. A number of figures can be seen on deck, where a trumpeter announced the yacht's arrival. On the right passengers in an overladen small boat observe the scene. Other shipping is shown leaving the port and at anchor. Plymouth has a deep and rocky harbour but there is no evidence other than the English shipping and flags that the artist was seriously trying to represent it. The painting is essentially a decorative piece appealing to British taste for marine subjects in a period when trade to the Mediterranean, especially the Levant, was expanding. Though attributed to Backhuysen, who worked in Amsterdam, the landscape elements, draughtsmanship and warmth of the palette, as well as the British elements, suggest this may be by a follower.
The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose.
The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright.
Identifier
InfoField
Acquisition Number: OP1990-3 id number: BHC4238
Collection
InfoField
Oil paintings
Licensing
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/PDMCreative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0falsefalse
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain". This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details.
Captions
Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents