British attacking a gunboat

without frame. Photograph by John Bentham.

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Artist/Maker William Smyth (British, 1800 - 1877)

Date1849

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 20 × 27 in. (50.8 × 68.6 cm) Frame: 24 × 31 × 2 1/8 in. (61 × 78.7 × 5.4 cm)

Credit LineThe Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection of Hamilton College

Object number1971.19

Not on view

DescriptionThe Beinecke Collection of the Lesser Antilles was originally assembled by Walter Beinecke, Jr., H1966. Although he did not graduate from Hamilton, Beinecke was devoted to the College. He was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1960 and served as a life trustee, until his death in 2004. In the late 1960s, he was integral in the planning of Kirkland College, where he was also appointed a trustee. During the 1960s, Beinecke collected art and manuscripts pertaining to the colonial period of the Lesser Antilles, a group of islands in the Caribbean including the present-day US and British Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados. In 1971, he presented his collection to Hamilton College. The diversity of these islands caused by their disparate geological underpinnings, the geographic origins of the slaves brought to each island, the policies of their colonial rulers, and their locations along trade routes is reflected in the wealth of material in the Beinecke Collection. The collection contains many landscapes and views of the various islands along with maps, most of which were created in the service of European colonial powers. For example, John Herbert Caddy—who painted Kingston, St. Vincent (cat. no. 38)—began his military service in England and served as an engineer in the West Indies during two tours of duty with the Royal Artillery between 1828 and 1837. Before the popularization of photography, topographical drawing and painting were an important part of an engineer’s training, used, in this case, to document the geographic features of the lands that encompassed the British Empire. European nations were often at war over these territories, as seen in William Smyth’s British Attacking a Gunboat (opposite). Saint Vincent itself became a British colony in 1763, after many decades of French rule. Beginning in 1720, European colonists brought thousands of Africans there as slaves to cultivate sugarcane. Prior to its European occupation, the island had been the domain of the Carib people, who had resisted foreign attempts to settle the island and continued to do so under British rule, until the country was emancipated in 1833. Kingston, St. Vincent depicts the then-inchoate harbor town of Kingstown (as it is spelled today), which eventually became the capital, on the island’s southwest coast. The Wellin Museum’s holdings of nearly one hundred watercolors, oil paintings, and prints dating from 1675 to 1878 are complemented by manuscripts, rare books, and other archival materials also collected by Beinecke, now held in the Hamilton College Special Collections at Burke Library. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017) "Gunboat at anchor in cover under attack from eight longboats, puffs of smoke; two ships under sail in distance; two men under three palm trees, right forground; barrels in water to viewer's left (starboard of ship); mountain in background." The island pictured is likely British-held based on the smaller attacking boats flying the Union Flag, which was flown on land and not by the British Navy, rather than the Union Jack. The gunboat is possibly French or Swedish.

Collections

Beinecke Collection of the Lesser Antilles

Additional Details

Alternate Titles Untitled [British attacking a gunboat]

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 37, illus.);

2005
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Hamilton Collects, A Century of Curiosities: The Story of the Hamilton College Collection," September 29 - December 30, 2005 (unnumbered cat.).

Provenance 1971: Hamilton College (Burke Library), by gift of Walter Beinecke, Jr.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 112;

Hough, Samuel J. and Penelope R.O. Hough, THE BEINECKE LESSER ANTILLES COLLECTION AT HAMILTON COLLEGE: A CATOLOGUE OF BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, PRINTS, MAPS, AND DRAWINGS (Trustees of Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, 1994), 338, catalogue no. P53.

Signature Signed and dated "Smyth RN / 1849" at lower left in oil.