| Constitution and Guerriere |
Painting of the USS Constitution and the HMS Guerriere by W. J. Huggins, 1821. William John Huggins began his career at sea, serving with the East India Company as a steward and assistant to the purser aboard the Provenance, which sailed for Bombay and China in December 1812, returning to England in August 1814. Shortly afterwards he set up as a marine painter in Leadenhall Street, near the East India Company offices. Huggins specialized in ship portraiture and many of his works were engraved by his son-in-law Edward Duncan (1803-1882). He was popular with seafaring men and his large output forms a valuable record of ships in the early nineteenth century. Huggins exhibited at the Royal Academy 1817-44 and at the British Institution 1825-45. In 1836 he was made marine painter to the sailor-King William IV, who favorably compared his pair of paintings of the Battle of Trafalgar with the huge, ambitious Trafalgar by Turner. Huggins died in London in 1845. The work of William John Huggins is represented in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; the Maritime Museum, Hull and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.
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