Cut-paper picture

Cut paper picture (découpage) commemorating Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805). The picture is made of blue paper with small pieces of red and white paper attached with glue. It is arranged in three tiers with a border. The top tier has a profile portrait with the initials 'GR' above, flanked with military trophies. On either side are facing pairs of peacocks; suspended beneath their perches are four hearts pierced with arrows, with a figure standing on one leg blowing a trumpet below each heart. There are three scenes along the base of the tier. In the first, a naval officer and lady hold hands flanked by an anchor and a pair of hearts between two doves on an altar. In the centre, the officer and lady take tea beneath a tree, the altar behind the lady. In the last scene the officer is rowed out to his ship, his lady on the shore, the altar with the hearts between them. The middle tier has an anchor beside the inscription: 'This the Great Warrier [sic] after all his Toil [pair of hearts and doves] / From Whom whilst living none could take the spoile, / Dropt is his prime and made the Grave his Bed [heart and arrows] / Whom late all Nations did both love and Dread / The ever to be lamented death of Vice admiral lord viscount Nelson'. The bottom tier shows Nelson falling wounded on the deck of his flagship, the funeral barge and two seaman on either side of an altar with the word 'Lament' on the top. A flying cherub with a trumpet suspends the word 'Victory' next to the ship. The whole is in a gilt wooden frame.

Object Details

ID: OBJ0416
Collection: Decorative art
Type: Cut-paper picture
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Unknown
Vessels: Victory (1765)
Date made: circa 1806
People: Nelson, Horatio; King George III
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Overall: 265 x 320 x 35 mm