Footnotes

Provenance :- Captain Sir Richard Pearson (commander of the 'Serapis', 1779)
Captain Scott, R.N. , Norwich
Mr.Westhorpe (Captain Scott's brother-in-law)
Rev. K. Westhorpe (son of the above), Southwold
Owen Evan-Thomas, (a picture dealer of Dover Street and nephew of the above)
Captain Paul Hammond, who bought it from the above, 1926
Beatrice, Lady Wright, niece of the above.

Richard Walker, having inspected photographs of it, believes this picture is Keymer's copy of the Guzzardi portrait and painted at Yarmouth in November 1800 (reproduced in his book, 'The Nelson Portraits', 1998, page 85, from photographs).

The innumerable images of Lord Nelson which have been so widely admired, copied and reproduced ever since the Admiral’s rise to public notice after the Battle of Cape St. Vincent (14th February 1797) are usually those by or after Lemuel Abbott, Sir William Beechey, Arthur Devis and John Hoppner. Many other artists however, tried their hand at capturing the likeness of ‘the most famous man of his time’ and one of these lesser known names was Matthew H. Keymer of Great Yarmouth who, in 1801, executed a highly distinctive – and almost unknown - portrait of Nelson currently housed in the local town hall.

The painting of 1801 was not Keymer’s first effort however, as he had already been asked to produce a copy of another artist’s work the previous year when, on 6th November 1800, Nelson, in company with Sir William and Lady Hamilton, had arrived at Great Yarmouth en route to London. Amongst Sir William Hamilton’s baggage was a splendid full-length portrait of Nelson by the Italian (Neapolitan?) artist Leonardo Guzzardi, one of several versions painted by the artist including the example sent to the Sultan of Turkey (by Nelson) in gratitude for the numerous gifts and honours bestowed upon him by Constantinople. Sir William Hamilton’s painting, quite probably the original since it seems most likely that the portrait was commissioned by the Hamiltons during Nelson’s stay in Naples in 1799, was unpacked upon arrival at Yarmouth where Keymer, apparently the only local artist of stature, was summoned to execute a bust-length copy with all possible speed. Why yet another version was required so urgently, and for whom, remains a mystery but it is this copy which is offered here as a most unusual addition to the collective Nelson iconography that has become so familiar during this bicentenary year.

Keymer’s image soon became familiar at the time of its execution when it was speedily engraved by John Young and published by Keymer himself that same December, within weeks of the portrait’s completion.

Keymer’s copy, together with Young’s mezzotint, as well as the several versions, both contemporary and later, of Guzzardi’s original portrait, are all discussed at length and illustrated in Richard Walker’s The Nelson Portraits, Royal Naval Museum (Portsmouth), 1998, pp. 80-86, 119, 223-27 & 254-55.

Captain Paul Hammond was born in 1884 and died in 1976, aged 92. He was a sailor of considerable reputation (he was the first American member of the Royal Yacht Squadron). He served with the United States Navy during both World Wars and came to Great Britain as assistant Naval Attache at the American Embassy with the rank of Commodore.
His niece, Beatrice Rathbone was married to John Rathbone, Conservative member of Parliament for S.E. Cornwall. After her fighter pilot husband was killed in action in 1941, she was returned unopposed by his constituency party and became the second American born woman to serve as a Member of Parliament.