An excellent work by British marine painter Frank Henry Mason, this small watercolor offers a rare glimpse of a working 17th century shipyard. The painting is filled with fascinating detail and shows the great 96 gun warship LOYAL LONDON in frame at the Deptford shipyard where she was built in 1666.
Using watercolor and body color over black chalk, Mason has created an image so accurate in composition and perspective that the viewer can almost step into the scene. Note the shadowy figures of the shipwrights and workmen and the contrast between them and the brightly colored party of admiralty dignitaries standing in the foreground inspecting the progress on the vessel.
Details of the shipyard show a second vessel being rigged to the left and what appears to be the framing for another vessel being set up in the right foreground. A third vessel, underway in the channel, is nicely framed by the two ships in the yard.
In a French metal gilt frame.
