Heightened with white. Inscribed 'Lord Nelson / by Devas' [sic]. The authority for the attribution is unknown and, from appearances, is unlikely. Devis certainly drew Nelson's likeness from his body, since he was present at the autopsy performed by Dr Beatty on 'Victory' in the Channel in December 1805, and subsequntly painted several versions of a portrait of him from this, of which the one done for Beatty was engraved in the latter's account of Nelson's death (see PAD3841). This drawing neither looks similar enough, nor securely in Devis's style, nor is it likely to be one of a corpse that had been nearly two months in a cask of brandy and which - though reported well preserved - was not so well preserved as to allow a death mask to be taken from the face. Its general impression is of a more heroic and later conceptualization, but more work is required to establish a more definite opinion. [PvdM 6/10]