HMS Victory in Portsmouth Harbour - signed watercolour by W.L. Wyllie

William Lionel Wyllie RA (1851-1931)
HMS Victory in Portsmouth Harbour, c.1912

watercolour, signed

Framed and glazed

Overall dimensions including frame: 38.9 x 48 cm

With an old excised framer's label adhered to the back bearing the date 1912, probably when it was originally framed soon after being painted.

After the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 HMS Victory returned to Portsmouth from her final active sea voyage in November 1812. She remained permanently moored in the water at Portsmouth Harbour, serving variously as a depot ship and a flagship.

Over a century later, severely deteriorated and in danger of sinking, she was towed from her berth and permanently placed into No. 2 Dry Dock at Portsmouth Dockyard on 12 January 1922.