' "southampton" at the battle of jutland'
inscribed 'southampton' by the artist, lower right. This is a preliminary study for a finished watercolour, with the title quoted above, reproduced in wyllie's co-authored book 'more sea fights of the great war' (1919), f. P. 120, as the fourth in his sequence there on the battle of jutland, 31 may 1916. It shows a german salvo falling short of hms 'southampton', a four-stacker 'chatham'-class protected cruiser, though the ship (seen from her starboard side) is not depicted very accurately. The 'chatham', 'bristol', 'weymouth' and 'birmingham' classes of 2nd-class protected cruisers had four raked funnels, with the first and fourth being noticeably thinner than the other two in the middle. Also, the 'chatham' class did not have a raised superstructure at the base of the mainmast, and this drawing is more like a 'drake'-class armoured cruiser. The splashes of shots falling short are also too closely grouped together to be natural - which is also true of the finished version- but it is still a highly effective piece and the technical looseness explained by its being a preliminary one only, to calculate general effect. Two other ships were included in the left distance in the finished version. Date: 1916. Dimensions: 315 mm x 447 mm. Collection: Fine art.
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