PETER MONAMY (LONDON 1681-1749) Admiralty yachts competing in a trial of sailing off Harwich, in a fresh breeze oil on canvas, unframed 71.5 x 112.5 cm. Provenance: Anonymous sale; Hotel Drouot, Paris, 5 April 1978, lot 132, as 'Attributed to Ludolf Bakhuizen.' Literature: M.S. Robinson, The Paintings of the Willem van de Veldes, London, 1990, vol. II, pp. 993-994, no. 795 [2], as 'English Yachts at Sea in a Fresh Breeze'. Peter Monamy is amongst the first English-born and trained marine painters. The artist’s works, with their accurate depiction of shipping details and attention to weather were very popular and widely reproduced, at a time when the English sea power and commerce scene were growing rapidly. Monamy belongs to a generation of artists highly influenced by the Dutch family of van de Velde, who came to London in 1672 and were commissioned to paint sea battles for Charles II.  He collected works by Willem van de Velde II and often copied whole compositions, adding details of his own. The source of the present lot’s composition is an untraced original by van de Velde II, known through a rare mezzotint by Richard Houston (1721-1775), A Fresh Gale, with Several Ships turning to Windward, Also a distant View of a Fleet at Anchor,  (see The Mariner’s Mirror: Journal of the Society for Nautical Research, vol. I, January 1911, p. 28). The mezzotint is more compact in shape and according to Robinson (op cit. Robinson, 1990, pp.993-994) there are numerous small differences, which are enough to suggest that the present lot is not the original used by the engraver. Robinson notes that the gaffs of the mainsail and foresail of the two schooner-rigged yachts are considerably longer than the ones in the engraving, which dates the present lot well into the 18th century and suggests that it was painted later than the Houston’s mezzotint. Also, the church spire of St Nicholas, Harwich, is clearly visible on the distant shoreline in the present lot, while the mezzotint shows no land at all. The subject appears to be a trial of sailing between two admiralty yachts, each rigged with two bezan sails, similar to the ones Dutch speeljachten (pleasure yachts) had serving to distinguish them from the single masted States yachts. The yacht with five gun ports, on the left of the composition, is thought to be Sir Phineas Pett’s Isabella Bezan, built in 1680.