11 Works, Today, February 19th. is artist Ambroise Louis Garneray's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #050

Ambroise Louis Garneray  (1783–1857)

Detail; le Furet cotre de l'État au service de Son Altesse Royale madame la duchesse de Berry quittant le port de Dieppe, c. 1827

Detail; The Ferret cutter of the State in the service of Her Royal Highness Madam the Duchess of Berry leaving the port of Dieppe, c. 182

Oil on canvas

Museum Château de Dieppe

Ambroise Louis Garneray (19 February 1783 – 11 September 1857) was a French corsair, a privateer or pirate, painter and writer. He served under Robert Surcouf and Jean-Marie Dutertre, and was held as prisoner-of-war by the British for eight years after being captured before being repatriated at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, continuing his career as a painter until his death in 1857.

Ambroise Louis Garneray  (1783–1857)

Herring fishing 

I have no further description, at this time

Garneray was the elder son of Jean-François Garneray (1755–1837), painter of the king. At thirteen, he joined the Navy as a seaman. He sailed under Sercey, a French admiral.

Ambroise-Louis Garneray, 1783-1857

L'ORIENT EXPLODES, THE BATTLE OF THE NILE, ABOUKIR BAY, 1ST AUGUST 1798

Gouache

66.5cm. by 89cm.; 26½ by 35in.

Private collection

Garneray took part in the various campaigns of Sercey division and witnessed the hardship it met in the battle against HMS Arrogant and HMS Victorious. He then served in 1798 on the corvette Brûle Gueule ("Mouth burner"), which patrolled with the frigate Preneuse (a 44-gun frigate of the French Navy) (See below). 

Ambroise Louis Garneray  (1783–1857)

Engraved by Pardinel

Destruction of the Preneuse, c. 1837

Private collection

I have no further description, at this time

Ambroise Louis Garneray  (1783–1857)

Abordage du Kent/ Boarding the HMS Kent, c. 1850

Oil on canvas

Musée d'Histoire de Saint-Malo

For lack of official ships, Garneray joined the Confiance (a privateer corvette from Bordeaux) from April at December 1800. He took part in the capturing and boarding the HMS Kent (See above) in October 1800. It was the only time where Garneray made money as a sailor. Upon returning from patrol, he invested his share in a slave trading ship, l'Union, a 74-gun ship of the line, on which he was a first mate.

Ambroise Louis Garneray  (1783–1857)

le Furet cotre de l'État au service de Son Altesse Royale madame la duchesse de Berry quittant le port de Dieppe, c. 1827

the Ferret cutter of the State in the service of Her Royal Highness Madam the Duchess of Berry leaving the port of Dieppe, c. 182

Oil on canvas

Museum Château de Dieppe

The marine painter Ambroise Louis Garneray immortalizes this stormy day when Le Furet, a cutter intended for the particular service of the duchess, is likely to run aground, by a rough sea, at the exit of the piers. On board, the Duchess galvanizes the crew and works to support her terrorized company ladies. A raging sea, a boat almost in distress and this frail young woman, defying the elements. More on this painting

He sailed on various trading ships during the peace of Amiens, after which he served aboard the Pinson ("the Finch"), a cutter based in Île Bourbon. He replaced the commander when he died, and was shipwrecked shortly thereafter. He then served on the corsair Tigre du Bengale and eventually on the frigate Atalante He later served on the Belle Poule ("beautiful chick"), and was aboard when she was captured by the British in March 1806. Wounded, Garneray was transported to England and spent the eight following years in prison hulks off Portsmouth. He was able to improve his standard of living by selling paintings to a British merchant.

Ambroise Louis Garneray (French, 1783–1857)Title:

Whaling by an American boat , c. 1816

Oil on panel

24 x 28.5 cm. (9.4 x 11.2 in.)

Private collection

Ambroise Louis Garneray  (1783–1857)

Return of Napoleon from Elba

Return from Elba Island, February 28, 1815; encounter of the brig l'Inconstant with the brig the Zéphir, c. circa 1852

Oil on canvas

287 × 227 cm (112.9 × 89.3 in)

Palace of Versailles

Released on 18 May 1814, Garneray did not find employment in the commercial navy and remained in Paris where he devoted himself to painting. Garneray received his first official order: the meeting of l'Inconstant and the Zéphir, as an anecdote of the return from Elba (See above). The work was carried out only in 1834 as, because of the political climate of the Bourbon Restoration, he felt it more convenient to paint the Descent of the French emigrants at Quiberon, which was exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1815. Garneray attended the salon every year from then.

Ambroise-Louis Garneray, 1783-1857

THE "HORNET" AND THE "PEACOCK"

Oil on panel

14 3/4 by 20 in., 37.5 by 50.8 cm.

Private collection

Off the coast of Brazil, on February 24, 1813, the Hornet, an American ship commanded by Captain Lawrence, attacked the English brigg, the Peacock. Within fifteen minutes the English ship was sinking and struck her colors. Thirteen of her own crew and tree American seamen went down with the ship. More on this painting

Garneray came to be employed by the duke of Angoulême, then Grand Admiral of France, and became his appointed painter in 1817. He was in fact the first Peintre de la Marine ("official painter of the Navy"). Between 1821 and 1830, he went in many harbours of France where he made numerous sketches which were used as a basis for engravings or fabrics.

Louis Ambroise Garneray (1783-1857)

Combat naval

Oil on canvas

38 x 55 cm 

Oil on canvas

In 1833, he was made director of the museum of Rouen. In the 1830s he developed a new genre of painting, the aquatint, and also developed a major career of engraving. In the 1840s, his fame seems to have dimmed; he lost most of his political supporters and fell into poverty. By the time of Napoleon III, he took part in the failed coup d'état of Strasbourg. He experienced a short return of glory towards the beginning of the Second French Empire, as he was awarded the Legion of honour in 1852 by vice admiral Bergeret and the Emperor himself.

Louis Ambroise Garneray (1783-1857)

The naval battle of Navarin, c. 1827

 photograph was made by Mourad Ben Abdallah

Oil on canvas

National Historical Museum of Greece

The Battle of Navarino was a naval battle fought on 20 October 1827, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–32), in Navarino Bay (modern Pylos). Allied forces from Britain, France, and Russia decisively defeated Ottoman and Egyptian forces which were trying to suppress the Greeks, thereby making Greek independence much more likely. More on this painting

Developing a tremor which prevented him from writing and which complicated his work as a painter, he died in Paris in 1857, a few months only before his wife was mysteriously assassinated. Garneray was buried at the Montmartre cemetery: A close friend of his had the tombstone decorated with a painter's palette, a ship mast and the Legion of Honour.

Louis Ambroise Garneray (1783-1857)

View of the Tower of London from the Thames

Oil on canvas

53.3 x 89.2 cm. (21 x 35 1/8 in.)

Private collection

The pictorial work of Garneray comprises 141 oil paintings, 176 engravings and 22 watercolour paintings. 

Garneray wrote epic depictions of his adventures, becoming one of the precursors of the maritime novel of adventure. More on Ambroise Louis Garneray

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.