Admiral Sir Edward Pellew - National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, UK
N 51° 28.873 W 000° 00.333
30U E 707917 N 5707592
This statue of Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, who came to prominence in the War of American Independence, is located in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
Waymark Code: WMN940
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/22/2015
Views: 1
The co-ordinates are for the Romney Road entrance to the National Maritime Museum that is open from 10am to 5pm from Monday to Sunday.
The information card next to the statue of Admiral Pellew tells us:
Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, 1757-1833
by Patrick MacDowell, 1846
Pellew joined the Royal Navy in 1770 and came to prominence in the War of American Independence (1775-83). In 1793, while in command of the Nymph, he captured Cleopatre, the first enemy frigate to be taken in the French Revolutionary War (1793-1802). His last major action was to bombard Algiers in 1816, to suppress the so-called 'Barbary pirates' and liberate hundreds of European slaves.
Commissioned as a national monument, pursuant to a vote of the House
of Commons in 1842.
The National Maritime Museum's website tells us about the statue and sculptor:
Over life-size marble statue, bare-headed, facing the front, torso turning to sitter's left, with the head turned strongly to his right and the right leg stepping out in line with it. The right arm turns back in front of the waist, pointing to sitter's left. The left arm is akimbo on that hip, towards sitter's back left, the hand holding his sword hilt under the folds of his boat-cloak, which is secured round the shoulders by a band across the upper chest. The sword scabbard is visible in low relief between the legs against the inside of the cloak. There are three cannon shot around the outer side and heel of the left foot. Pellew otherwise wears admiral's full-dress uniform, with epaulettes, open over a waistcoat.
The figure stands on a circular base which is signed 'P. MACDOWELL. R.A. / SCULP_ LONDON. 1846.' This statue was one of three commissioned by Parliament in 1842 at £1500 each as national monuments to their subjects, the others being of Admirals Lord de Saumarez and Sir Sidney Smith.
On completion, at differing times, all were placed in the Naval Gallery in the Painted Hall of Greenwich Hospital (this one being in the south-west corner flanking the steps up to the Upper Hall).
Patrick MacDowell (1799–1870) was a London-based sculptor who exhibited at the RA in the 1820s before entering the Academy Schools for further training in 1830. He became a Royal Academician in 1846, the year this piece was completed.