The Spanish Frigate Numancia

This work shows the Spanish frigate Numancia, one of the first in the world to be powered by steam and the first armored ship to circumnavigate the world. The Numancia was launched in 1863 and became the backbone of the Spanish fleet in the War of the Pacific against Peru and Chile. Like all ships of the period, it was only in use for a short time and sank in 1916 off the Portuguese coast while being towed for scrappage.

The painting is part of a series of 92 works titled "Graphic History of Naval Construction" created by the pilot, researcher, painter, and Naval Museum restorer Rafael Monleón Torres (1843–1900) during the final 2 decades of the 19th century.

The drawings have a similar formal structure: in the center is a watercolor about 32 x 48 centimeters in size on top of a larger piece of white laid paper with an 8-centimeter border on each side. In this border, Monleón drew different pen studies of the boats featured in the main scene with accompanying explanatory text.

As a whole, the series represents a detailed study of the development of naval architecture from ancient forms of navigation to the most modern turn-of-the-century ships. Monleón also produced a handwritten dictionary, "Artistic Aspects of Naval Constructions," which is now held at the Naval Museum.