Ships of the fleet with xebecs and other Mediterranean craft off Gibraltar

The unusual format of the present work suggests that it was commissioned as a frieze for a specific interior scheme. Although the date is not fully legible, given the last digit reads ‘4’, it can be tentatively associated with a work exhibited at the Royal Academy, London in 1784 as ‘View of Gibraltar, for the frieze of a chimney' (no. 127). A comparable painting depicting The Leander off Gibraltar of broadly similar dimensions was commissioned in 1791 by the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV (1765-1837), probably as a frieze for a chimney piece at either Clarence Lodge or St James’s Palace (sold Sotheby’s, 2 December 2025, lot 22).