PROVENANCE:
Commissioned by Admiral Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford (1652-1727)
for Chippenham Hall, Cambridgeshire, and by inheritance to his great-niece,
Letitia Tipping (1699-1779), wife of Samuel Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys (1695-
1770), and by descent to their son,
Edwin Sandys, 2nd Baron Sandys (1726-1797), and by inheritance to his niece,
Mary, Marchioness of Downshire and 1st Baroness Sandys (1764-1836), and by
descent to her second son,
Lieutenant-General Arthur Hill, 2nd Baron Sandys (1792-1860), and by
inheritance to his younger brother,
Arthur Marcus Sandys, 3rd Baron Sandys (1798-1863), and by descent in the family
to,
Richard Hill, 7th Baron Sandys (1931-2023), at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire.
EXHIBITED:
London,
Earl’s Court, Naval, Shipping and Fisheries Exhibition, 1905, no. 418 or 420, both described as ‘Naval Battle’.
LITERATURE:
J. Grego,
Inventory of Pictures: Portraits, Paintings, etc., Ombersley MS., 1905, where listed in the Great Dining Hall. ONM / 1 / 2 / 7, journal entry for a visit to Ombersley Court, 25 August 1950, Oliver Millar Archive, Paul Mellon Centre, London, p. 29. A. Oswald, ‘Ombersley Court, Worcestershire – II’,
Country Life, 9 January 1953, p. 96, pl. 8
.Ombersley Court Inventory, annotated Ombersley MS., June 1963, where listed in the Dining Room. M.S. Robinson, Van de Velde:
A Catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and Younger Willem van de Velde, Greenwich, 1990, II, pp. 968 and 969, no. 636.Ombersley Court Catalogue of Pictures, undated, Ombersley MS., p. 28, where listed in the Ballroom.
REFERENCES
Country Life, 9 January 1953, p. 97, pl. 9
The monumental painting of the
Council of War on the Britannia , 164.2 x 306 cm was signed and dated ‘Ao 1698 W.V. Velde f.’. Russell, who was an Admiral in the Royal Navy at the time, commissioned the painting for display in his country home. There it remained for over 325 years along with three other marine paintings attesting to his naval exploits.
Willem van de Velde the Younger, The Council of War
