Admiral Sir Frederick Doveton Sturdee, 1859-1925

A half-length sketch portrait of Sir Frederick Doveton Sturdee by society painter Sir Arthur Stockdale Cope. The sitter leans on his right arm and looks to the left, his hands loosely suggested as clasped before him. As a rear-admiral Sturdee was the flag officer of the squadron sent to revenge the destruction of two British cruisers by Admiral von Spee off Coronel on the Chilean coast on 1 November 1914. His force succeeded in sinking Spee's 'Scharnhorst' and 'Gneisenau', and his supporting cruisers except the 'Emden', which escaped, at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December. This was a preparatory sketch from life for the painting of a group of officers, 'Naval Officers of World War I', 1921, at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG1913) by Sir Arthur Stockdale Cope. It is inscribed on the front, 'Admiral Sir F D Sturdee, Study for Naval War Group'. The other officers in the finished portrait include Sir Robert Keith Arbuthnot, fourth Bt; Sir Horace Hood; Sir John Michael De Roebeck, Bt; Roger Keyes, first Baron Keyes; Sir Cecil Burney, first Bt; David Beatty, first Earl Beatty; Sir Trevylyan Napier and Louis Alexander.

Object Details

ID: BHC3042
Collection: Fine art
Type: Painting
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Cope, Arthur Stockdale
Date made: 1920
People: Sturdee, Frederick Charles Doveton
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Painting: 362 x 633 mm; Frame: 925 mm x 799 mm x 80 mm; Weight: 13 kg
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