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The Fleet Off the Coast, Beachy Head
Samuel Atkins (British, 1760-1810)c. 1790-1805
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This watercolor depicts the breathtaking headlands of Beachy Head, the highest, most dramatic chalk sea cliffs in the United Kingdom. A marine painter active during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Samuel Atkins patriotically associated Britain’s identity with its coastal geography and famous navy. A fleet of sailing vessels is seen in the distance in full sail, suggesting a rare moment of the entire fleet’s departure.
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Details
- Title: The Fleet Off the Coast, Beachy Head
- Creator: Samuel Atkins (British, 1760-1810)
- Date Created: c. 1790-1805
- Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 34.4 x 48.4 cm (13 9/16 x 19 1/16 in.)
- Provenance: (Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London), Private Collection, United States, (Lowell Libson, Ltd., London, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2011.411
- Medium: watercolor with graphite underdrawing
- Inscriptions: signed, at lower left, in brown ink: Atkins
- Fun Fact: Beachy Head, the site depicted in this drawing, worked its way into popular culture and literature around the time that Samuel Atkins made the work, including a song of the Royal Navy and a poem by Charlotte Turner Smith, a contemporary of the artist.
- Department: Drawings
- Culture: England, 18th century
- Credit Line: Gift of Lowell Libson in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred M. Rankin, Jr.
- Collection: DR - British
- Accession Number: 2011.411
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