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Description:
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A heavily classicized representation of Nelson’s apotheosis, showing his body being handed up by Neptune into the arms of Britannia. This is surrounded by references to his victories and the earthly rewards they brought him, those for Trafalgar mainly benefiting his undistinguished elder brother William, who became 1st Earl Nelson.
The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807 but became best known in two other forms. It was engraved as frontispiece for the first major Life of Nelson (1809) by the Revd J. S. Clarke and John McArthur – a pietistic piece of family-inspired propaganda that has cast a long shadow over later writing. In 1814 the design was also converted by West and Joseph Panzetta into a high-relief sculptural version in Coade stone, installed in the King William courtyard pediment at Greenwich Hospital (now the Old Royal Naval College). In fact, West’s original idea was that a larger version of the painting should form the central ‘altarpiece’ of a sculptural wall monument to Nelson – his contribution to the public proposals for such a tribute after Trafalgar. His painted design for the whole thing was also exhibited with this painting at the Royal Academy in 1807, with a detailed catalogue description. That version is now in the Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut.
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