~ Framed Harold Wyllie Oil Painting HMS Cruizer (1705) Off Valetta Harbour Malta ~
This fine and sizeable oil painting depicts HMS Cruizer with an attendent fleet off Valetta harbour in Malta.
It is signed to the lower left.
~ Harold Wyllie ~
Marine painter, sculptor and engraver, born in London. Was the son of the marine artist William Lionel Wyllie and married the portrait painter Euphans Hilary Strain. Harold Wyllie was intended for the Navy, but failed his examinations and turned to art. In 1898 he went to New York as a special artist for The Graphic, then served in South Africa during the Boer War. For part of World War I he was a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps, then gained a commission in the Army, which he left in 1920 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Wyllie was then a student with Frank Short, having prior to the war studied with his father, Thomas Graham Jackson and Edwin Austin Abbey, the American painter. Acknowledged as an expert on shipping matters, Wyllie was in 1932 called on to supervise restoration of the Implacable.
He listed nautical research as his recreation to the end. He was honorary marine painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron, 1934, and served with the Navy in World War II. Exhibited RA, RI, Leicester Galleries and Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. The Imperial War Museum and the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, hold his work. Lived in Perthshire, Scotland.
~ HMS Cruizer ~
HMS Cruizer (1705) was a 24-gun sixth rate, previously the French ship De Meric. She was captured in 1705 by HMS Tryton and was wrecked in 1708.
~ Condition ~
Please refer to the images for the condition. The painting is in excellent order, the frame has a few chips.
~ Dimensions ~
The frame is 94cm (37 inches) wide and 59 cm (23 inches) tall.
