BHC3554

The East Indiaman 'Pitt', in three positions, off Dover Long Caption: The oil painting shows the same ship, the 'Pitt', in three positions, which was a standard convention of ship portraiture for captains and owners. It was previously said to show the ship after returning from China in 1786 but, since the painting is signed and dated 1786, was presumably painted before she sailed there on her first voyage for the Company, under Captain George Cowper, who embarked in March that year, returning to the Downs in August 1787. Dominic Serres appears to have repeated this composition in an almost identical painting in the Government Art Collection, London, of the Indiaman 'Francis'. Credit line: © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection Object: BHC3554 Artist: Dominic Serres, the Elder Date: 1786 Medium: oil on canvas Size: 1168 mm x 1803 mm Click here to buy a bespoke print of this image.