After a Storm

The size of this small painting contrasts dramatically with the two other huge paintings in the Picture Gallery by Stanfield : The Battle of Roveredo, 1796 (east wall) and View of the Pic du Midi d’Ossau in the Pyrenees, with Brigands (west wall). Unlike these landscape pictures this petite painting is an example of the artist’s considerable work as a marine painter.

The painting shows the aftermath of a storm. A wrecked ship is on the horizon, a smaller sailing boat approaching it, and an anchor or buoy is tossed into the waves in the right foreground. Thomas Holloway bought a considerable number of maritime paintings for the art collection that he gave to the College. This may have been...