Samuel Scott

(London 1702-1772 Bath)

Shipping in a calm sea

Footnotes

Provenance
Commissioned by Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, by whom bequeathed with the house to the following
Anne Seymour Damer (1748-1828), and by inheritance with the house to the following
Maria (née Walpole), H.R.H. Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1736-1807), by whom bequeathed to her eldest daughter by her first marriage
Elizabeth, Countess Waldegrave (1760-1816), and by descent to the following
George, 7th Earl Waldegrave (1816-1846), by whom offered
The Strawberry Hill sale, Robins, in situ, 18 May 1842, lot 78 (erroneously as 'A Sea Piece, the Lion Man-of-War chasing the vessel in which Prince Charles Edward was proceeding to Scotland' by Scott), where acquired by
Mr Dauberry and thence by descent to the present owners

Exhibited
On loan to Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, 2012-2021


Literature
H. Walpole, A Description of the Villa of Horace Walpole, Youngest Son of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford, at Strawberry-Hill, near Twickenham. With an Inventory of the Furniture, Pictures, Curiosities, Strawberry-Hill, 1774, p. 69, recorded in The Gallery as hanging right-hand of the chimney
H. Walpole, A Description of the Villa of Horace Walpole, Youngest Son of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford, at Strawberry-Hill, near Twickenham. With an Inventory of the Furniture, Pictures, Curiosities, Strawberry-Hill,, 1784, p. 50, recorded in The Gallery as hanging right-hand of the chimney
R. Kingzett, A Catalogue of the works of Samuel Scott, in Walpole Society, 1980-1982, vol. 48, p.32 under entry B

The present work originally hung in The Gallery at Strawberry Hill, which Horace Walpole created between 1761 and 1763 as a place to entertain and to display pictures. Samuel Scott was an artist promoted by Walpole and of the large set of Scott's views commissioned by Walpole for the two niches in the Gallery this is the only that has resurfaced. Scott's works, which included gothic views as well as sea pieces, hung in the mirrored niches which imitated Cardinal Bourchier's tomb at Canterbury Cathedral, alongside pastel portraits by Rosalba Carriera and Jean-Etienne Liotard and paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Scott had become a neighbour of Walpole when he moved to Twickenham in 1758 and Walpole said that Scott's works 'will charm in every age' and that 'if he was second to Vandeveldt in sea pieces, he excelled him in variety.'