File:Guardship off The Nore RMG BHC1211.tiff

A painting showing a frigate anchored in the distance off the English coast. The round form of its forecastle head bulwark indicates a date of about 1820 at earliest. There are two sailing trawlers in foreground and the one closest to the viewer is shown towing a small boat in the lively sea. The cliffs on the right and the frigate are both picked out by a shaft of bright light through the dramatically piled-up clouds. This may be intended to reinforce a sense of national identity.

The painting came into the Museum in 1946, with its existing title and firmly ascribed to the 19th-century marine artist, Clarkson Stanfield, from the collection formed by the screw-manufacturer Frederick Nettlefold of Birmingham (d. 1881). The frigate is too fully rigged to be a credible representation of a guardship, and they were anyway usually larger vessels, while it is also far from certain whether the location shown is the Nore ( the junction of the Thames and Medway). There are one or two instances when Stanfield worked on other artists' pictures - for example finishing one by Chambers after the latter's death in 1840 - and while he could have painted much of the sky in this example there is no other evidence for this. The rest of the picture is certainly by another hand. Though ultimately deriving from Dutch 17th-century models, the composition and aspects of handling, especially the coast on the right, show greater influence by J.M.W Turner than Stanfield, probably through his 'Liber Studiorum' prints such as that of the now missing 'Leader seapiece' of c. 1807-09 (Butlin & Joll, no. 205). The authorship is considerable puzzle, since Nettlefold had a good collection, and was a considerable BIrmingham art patron.