FINE ORIGINAL EARLY 19th CENTURY BRITISH OLD MASTER OIL PAINTING HONG KONG SCENE

PAINTING REF 110024
Fine Original Antique 18/19th Century British
OLD MASTER OIL PAINTING
Two Man O War Ship of the Hong Kong
 
( early 19th century )
 
Title: John Thomas Serres 
 
Artist: attributed because we have no paper line 
 
Signed : no
 
Provenance: john Castagno art 
signature directory
 
Medium : Oil painting on Canvas
 
Condition: most of the painting is in good condition , but there is some bad crazing and overpaint , this painting is good condition would be over £10,000 as a painting of man o war ship in Asian are very rare
 
Country: British 
 
Frame size : 30.5 in x 25.5 in 
( 77 cm x 65 cm)
 
Canvas size : 30 in x 18 in
 
With an estimate of £10,000 - £16,000
 
Marine painter John Thomas Serres was the son and pupil of the French-born, former prisoner-of-war, Dominic Serres (1722-1793) also a marine painter. 
 
Serres moved to Liverpool between 1796 and 1798. He resided in a house belonging to engraver and painter Moses Haughton (baptized 1735 - 1804), and subsequently his son Matthew Haughton (baptized 1766 - 1821), also an artist and engraver. While in Liverpool he published 4 etched views of the port and held an exhibition of his naval pictures. In 1799 a sale was held in Liverpool by dealer Thomas Vernon including many of Serres's views of Liverpool, Manchester and Italy. A sketch book of views from Seacombe and Woodside, Birkenhead of October 1796 - March 1797 is in the Liverpool City Central Library.
Serres travelled extensively spending time in Paris in 1789 and Naples and Rome between 1790-1791. He succeeded his father to the office of Marine Painter to George III in 1793. Serres became Marine Draughtsman to the Admiralty in 1800, making drawings and elevations of the west coasts of France and Spain. He was also a drawing instructor at the Chelsea Naval School in London. Inspired by Claude Lorrain's (1604/5-1682) 'Liber Veritatis' he published the 'Liber Nauticus, and Instructor in the Art of Marine Drawing' (1805-6).
By 1808, Serres had experienced financial difficulties. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh for debt in 1818. Unable to act as official draughtsman on the royal visit of George IV to Scotland in 1822 . He died in debtors' prison in 1825.