Admiral Nelson’s Death by Charles Eastlake - British Napoleonic Masterpieces in America

Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to visit and photograph a collection of Napoleonic art in the NYC Metro area and in due course will be sharing some of the highlights.

Today the focus is on a large oil painting by Charles Lock Eastlake (1793 - 1865). Measuring over 7 1/2 feet tall and 5 feet wide, the large canvas depicts the fatal shooting, by a marksman, of British Naval hero Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758 - 1805), during the Napoleonic Wars. On the far right of the composition stands Captain Thomas Hardy, while on the same side, kneels ship surgeon William Beatty.

At age 47, Admiral Nelson was fatally shot on the deck of his flagship the HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). Facing the combined might of the French and Spanish fleets, Admiral Nelson led the British naval fleet to a historic and decisive victory off the coast of Spain. Below decks, Nelson died of the sniper shot just prior to the British victory.

Following the death of their greatest naval warrior, the British were devastated, the sentiment was that it would have been better to lose the battle than to lose Horatio Nelson. Admiral Nelson coat, preserved from the battle, is at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.

The artist Charles Eastlake, a revered British painter, and friend of J. M. W. Turner was the first Director of the National Gallery located in London. Eastlake was also elected president of the Royal Academy of Art in 1850, a position he held until his death.

Formerly of the Forbes Museum collection, this painting is presently in the Andreas Roubian Collection. In 2001, the Roubian Collection loaned the work to the Frick Mansion Museum / Nassau County Museum of Art for the exhibition Napoleon and His Age.

The Death of Admiral Nelson - Charles Eastlake (1793-1865) - Source: Andreas Roubian Collection