HMS NEPTUNE in action off Spartivento at 3.25pm, 9 July 1940. W A Richards (exhibited 1893-1920)

Miscellaneous. Watercolour heightened with white and signed W A Richards (lower right).

HMS NEPTUNE in action off Spartivento at 1525, 9 July 1940

13.75 x 8.25 inches (35 x 21 cms) approx

Price on Application

This original has been sold and is no longer available.

A wonderful portrait of this well known cruiser whose life was sadly cut short when she was mined with great loss of life off Libya on 19 December 1942.  Commanded by the charismatic Captain Rory O'Conor who had recently been The Commander of the battle cruiser HMS HOOD and who would have undoubtedly risen to the highest ranks of the Royal Navy had he survived, NEPTUNE's short life was packed with action and achievement.  This is a fitting painting of a fine light cruiser of the Mediterranean Fleet  - battle ensigns streaming, bow wave cresting up her stem, main armament roaring - as she goes into action against the Italian Battle Fleet some 16 months before she herself went down.