Two 'Queen Elizabeth'-class battleships, one identified as 'Warspite' RMG PV0077, William Lionel Wyllie, 1917

Two 'queen elizabeth'-class battleships, one identified as 'warspite' inscribed 'warspite' by the artist, at the bottom. This shows two 'queen elizabeth'-class battleships in 1917 but that called 'warspite' (on the right) is probably not, despite the inscription. The vessel shown has a yard crossed on the fore tripod-mast: 'warspite' did not have this feature but 'barham', 'valiant' and 'malaya' did. Two platforms were also fitted to the mainmast during 1917 and the ship on the right has them but the one on the left does not. Also in 1917 tall searchlight 'coffee box' towers were fitted to the second funnel and the vessel on the left appears to have them whereas the one on the right does not. In short, the detailing shown is insufficient to identify the ships specifically within the class - though wyllie presumably intended to show 'warspite'. The location is probably scapa flow. Date: 1917. Dimensions: 253 mm x 352 mm. Collection: Fine art.