Overall: 40cm (16in) x 33cm (13in)
Mezzotint. Titled beneath the image ‘Admiral Lord Nelson of the Nile’. Engraved by John Young (1755-1825) after Matthew Keymer. Published by Keymer at Yarmouth 8 December 1800. Inscribed lower left ‘Painted by M.H. Keymer, Yarmouth from a Portrait by a Celebrated Artist at Palermo, Portrait-Painter to the King.’; and lower right, ‘Engraved by Jno, Young Engraver to His Rl Highs the Prince of Wales.’. Image: 29cm x 24cm. Framed and glazed.
On a cold wet winter’s day, 6 November 1800, Nelson and the Hamiltons landed at Great Yarmouth following an overland journey through Europe. Despite the rain Nelson received a rapturous welcome. Appearing on the balcony of an inn with Emma Hamilton in a dress embroidered with the words ‘Nelson’ and ‘Bronte’, he told the cheering throng ‘I am a Norfolk man, and glory in being so’. Amongst Sir William Hamilton’s baggage was Leonardo Guzzardi’s full-length portrait of Nelson that had been commissioned in Naples to celebrate his triumph at the Nile. It was hurriedly unpacked and widely admired. For reasons now unknown the only local artist of stature, Mathew Keymer, was summoned to execute a bust-length copy in oil with all possible speed. Nelson, who was shortly to be whisked off to a service of thanksgiving and given the freedom of the town, was asked by the landlady of the Wrestlers Arms for his permission to rename her inn The Nelson Arms, causing the Admiral to retort that the change of name would be absurd as he only had one. Nelson’s celebrity at this time offered Keymer the opportunity to capitalize on his hastily executed oil, and caused him to publish it in print form four weeks later. Consequently the present print offers a startlingly authentic image by Nelson’s with his cocked hat angled to avoid contact with the wound over his blind right eye.