PY3896

Portrait of the 'Royal Thérèse' (?), 70 to 80-gun ship built as the 'Paris' in 1670, renamed in 1671 and condemned in 1690 Long Caption: The 'Royal Thérèse' viewed from slightly before the port beam with, on the broadside, fourteen guns on the gun deck, thirteen on the upper deck, three on the forecastle, five on the quarterdeck and two on the poop. The figurehead is a man on horseback and there is an inscription reading 'schout bij nacht met d 4 kante vlag' (Rear-Admiral with the square flag). Robinson identifies it as the 'Royal Thérèse' based on this note and the fact that the only other vessel it could be for the date and drawing circumstances (the 'Térrible') had a different arrangement of guns. This is one of a group of French ships drawn in the summer of 1673 when van de Velde visited the Anglo-French fleet while it was refitting after the first battle of Schooneveld (PAI7269, PAH9357, PAI7270, PAH9358, PAH1824, and PAI7271). Credit line: © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London Object: PAH3896 Artist: Willem van de Velde, the Elder Date: 1673 Medium: graphite; grey wash Size: 193 mm x 569 mm Click here to buy a bespoke print of this image.