John Cleveley the Younger, Launch of HMS Alexander at Deptford in 1778

John Cleveley the Younger (24 December 1747 – 25 June 1786) was a British artist and marine painter.

Life and work

Cleveley was the son of

John Cleveley the Elder John Cleveley the Elder (c.1712 – 21 May 1777) was an English marine artist. Life Cleveley was born in Southwark. He was not from an artistic background, and his father intended him to follow the family trade of joinery, so he set up ...

. He and his twin brother

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

were both, like their father,

marine painter Marine art or maritime art is a form of figurative art (that is, painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture) that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre part ...

s. John and Robert were both brought up and trained in dockyards, but (particularly by producing pictures especially for print reproduction) addressed much wider audiences with their art than their father had done. He trained under the artist

Paul Sandby Paul Sandby (1731 – 7 November 1809) was an English map-maker turned landscape painter in watercolours, who, along with his older brother Thomas, became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Life and work Sandby was ...

at Woolwich. He was

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

' draughtsman on his journey to the

Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrid ...

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, his sketches were worked into watercolour, some of which were placed with the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. John was employed to turn drawings made on

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

’s second voyage to the South Seas (1772–75) into engravings, and later also got access to some of the art produced on the third voyage, 1776-80 (via drawings and eyewitness accounts made by his brother James, who was a carpenter on the third voyage). Despite going on neither expedition personally, John moved fast to cash in on the new demand for South Seas images, producing images for the print market such as the ''

Death of Cook ''Death of Cook'' is the name of several paintings depicting the 1779 death of the first European visitor to the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook at Kealakekua Bay. Most of these paintings seem to go back to an original by John Cleveley th ...

'', and ''

HMS Resolution Several ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Resolution''. However, the first English warship to bear the name ''Resolution'' was actually the first rate ''Prince Royal'' (built in 1610 and rebuilt in 1641), which was renamed ''Resol ...

and at

Moorea Moorea ( or ; Tahitian: ), also spelled Moorea, is a volcanic island in French Polynesia. It is one of the Windward Islands, a group that is part of the Society Islands, northwest of Tahiti. The name comes from the Tahitian word , meaning " ...

''. John the Younger painted the Royal Dockyards at Deptford, Woolwich and Chatham (e.g. the hand-coloured print ''A view of His Majesty’s dockyard at Chatham'', showing a naval ship being floated out, a launching scene common in the work of both father and son; and ''Launch of HMS Alexander at Deptford in 1778''). However, John the Younger's launch scenes abandon John the Elder's documentary style and its stiffness, and instead show a more atmospheric, open view, with low horizons reminiscent of 17th-century

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...

marine art. The son's range of subjects was also far wider.

References

External links

"The Cleveley Family", at ''Portcities''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleveley, John British marine artists 18th-century English painters English male painters English watercolourists 1747 births 1786 deaths 18th-century English male artists