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Biography of Peter Monamy (1681–1749)
English marine painter, of Guernsey descent, born and active in London. He began as a decorative painter and was made a freeman of the Painter-Stainers’ Company in 1703 following a seven-year training under the house-painter William Clarke. George Vertue records that Monamy had a natural interest in painting shipping which he developed by observation and practice, and that he built up a considerable mercantile and Royal Naval clientele. He was a fluent follower and occasional copyist of Willem van de Velde the Younger (and had a collection of his drawings) and modelled his battle scenes on paintings by earlier masters. His marine pieces depict real ships but rarely record specific events, possibly because until 1739 his career spanned a time of peace.
Among his imaginary scenes is the painting ‘French Ships in Action with Barbary Pirates’ (National Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney). It was probably through his friend William Hogarth that Monamy was commissioned to decorate several of the supper-boxes at Vauxhall Gardens in London, with marine paintings illustrating John Gay’s patriotic ballad ‘Sweet William’s Farewell to Black Eyed Susan’. The paintings are lost but known from the engravings by Paul Fourdrinier. He also contributed a view of the fleet in the Downs (also lost) to the Foundling Hospital. He lived much of his life in Westminster, close to some of his naval patrons (especially the Durell family of Jersey) and died there in ‘indifferent’ financial circumstances according to Vertue, from charging modest prices and working much for dealers. His younger contemporaries, Brooking and Scott, both eclipsed him artistically, the former dying a pauper however, the latter being much more successful.
View paintings by Peter Monamy
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