Cutter Close Hauled in a Fresh Breeze
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A large cutter heels hard to the wind at the right, its sails taut and cream-yellow against a sky of dark gray-brown and white clouds. To the left, a full-rigged warship fires a gun, flying the British ensign. Several smaller vessels dot the middle distance, and the sea is dark green and gray with whitecaps and choppy swells. Brooking was an English marine painter who died at twenty-six and is still considered one of the finest maritime painters of the 18th century. He worked in Deptford, near the royal dockyards, and his ship portraits show the kind of rigging and hull knowledge that only comes from proximity to working vessels.