'Odd scraps built into a ship'- a 'Lord Clive'-class monitor RMG PW1846, William Lionel Wyllie, circa 1916

'odd scraps built into a ship': a 'lord clive'-class monitor inscribed, as title, and signed by the artist, lower right, this drawing was reproduced in colour in wyllie and m. F. Wren's 'sea fights of the great war (1918) f. P. 136, though there is only a passing reference on that page to monitors in general as bombardment vessels of limited sea-going capacity. The subject here is a 'lord clive'-class monitor, probably one of the five of the class that were modified at portsmouth in 1916, which is likely to be the quayside location shown. The bridge was altered and 6-inch guns were added on the upper deck. The five ships involved were the 'general wolfe', 'prince eugene', 'general crauford', 'prince rupert' and 'sir thomas picton'. Wyllie's sardonic title suggests he did not have a high technical opinion of monitors, although he drew enough of them to suggest they had aesthetic appeal as this attractively sunny study - and his publication of it - both indicate. Date: circa 1916. Dimensions: Sheet: 312 x 248 mm. Collection: Fine art.