Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering for sale this well executed WWI Oil on Board by the artist J. S. Ellis, who has signed the painting in the lower right hand corner and dated it 1919. He has entitled the painting in the lower left "The Last of U29".

The painting depicts an incident in the Pentland Firth near Orkney, on 18th March 1915, when the German submarine U29 was rammed by the British battleship HMS Dreadnought and was sunk with all hands. This was the only Uboat known to have been purposefully sunk by a battleship.

U29 was commissioned on lst August 1914 and was a typeU27 submarine, built by Kaiserliche Werft Danzig and launched on 11th October 1913. At the time of her sinking, she was captained by Captain Otto Weddugen abd 34 crew.

HMS Dreadnought was a Royal Navy battleship whose design revolutionised naval power. The ship's entry into service in 1906 represented such an advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of ships named after her. Likewise, the generation of ships she made obsolete became known as "pre-dreadnoughts" She was built by HM Dockyard Portsmouth and was commissioned on 2nd December 1906. Other than the incident mentioned above, she had a very unremarkable career. She wasn't present at the battle of Jutland, nor did Dreadnought participate in any of the other First World War naval battles. In May 1916 she was relegated to coastal defence duties in the English Channel, before rejoining the Grand Fleet in 1918. The ship was reduced to reserve in 1919 and sold for scrap two years later.

Unfortunately, we cannot find any information on the artist in any of our reference books, or online. We did find an owner of a fishing trawler with these initials who was alive in 1919, and it may well have been him or an amateur artist in the Navy who painted this work, but we cannot offer any biographical information.

The painting is framed in a 2 5/8 inch gilt frame.

Medium: Oils on George Rowney & Co. Birchmore Board

Image size: 17 1/4 x 10 7/8 inches - 43.8cm x 27.6cm

Frame size: 22 5/8 x 16 1/4 inches - 57.5cm x 41.25cm

Condition: Very good. In good, clean condition with no damage or craquelure. The frame is in good condition with no losses..