Oil Painting HMS Mars & HMS Belleisle Joining Fray Trafalgar 1805 by Barry Mason

1 Large Seascape Art Marine Oil Painting Naval Ships Maritime Napoleonic War Sea Battle Off Trafalgar Coast by British artist Barry Mason

Title plaque shown on the bottom front of frame HMS Mars & HMS Belleisle at Trafalgar 1245pm 21st October 1805 ".

Subject depicting the historic naval Napoleonic era Trafalgar sea marine ships battle war firing on each other.

Artists description label verso Joining the Fray, HMS Mars & HMS Belleisle at Trafalgar 1245pm 21st October 1805. Left to Right Indomptable, Mars, Santa Ana, Belleisle and Fougueux (behind Santa Ana the Royal Sovereign) The 74 gun men -o-war Mars and Belleisle break the line some minutes after the flagship Royal Sovereign, who has laid along side the Spanish flagship Santa Ana, and is involved in heavy cannon fire with her opponent. Belleisle and Mars have approached the French/Spanish line in heavy swells and light winds without being able to fire a shot. They endured 20 minutes of heavy gun fire, sustaining much damage and quite a few casualties. Belleisle is beginning to fire into the already smashed stern of the Santa Ana and would layer fight a fierce duel with the Fougueux. Mars went on to fight a long duel with the French 74 gun Pluton.

Distinctly signed by known artist Barry Mason this is such a very fine example of his marine work.

Barry Mason FRBS is a British Postwar & Contemporary painter & sculptor who was born in the year 1947 in Seaton which is a seaside town, fishing harbour and civil parish in East Devon on the south coast of England, between Axmouth and Beer. It faces onto Lyme Bay and is on the Dorset and East Devon Coast Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site United Kingdom. Mason was known to have studied Fine Art at Reading University also at the Slade University College London. Mason's works have sold at auctions around the world with sold prices reaching up to to 21,056 USD, the current highest sold is 21,056 US dollars which was for The Battle of Trafalgar at 12:20pm on 21st October 1805, sold at Bonhams Knightsbridge in 2015.

Circa late end of 20th century 1990's.

Oil on canvas.

Set in original gilt frame.

Having beautiful highly detailed extensive perspective.

You can see the ensign Flags of the English & French, rigging and sails, such an incredible sight you can almost feel the adrenalin racing in this battle.

The Battle of Trafalgar 21 October 1805 was a naval engagement fought by the British Royal Navy, against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition August–December 1805, of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).

As part of an overall French plan to combine all French and allied fleets to take control of the English Channel, to thus enable Napoleon's Grande Armée to invade England, French and Spanish fleets under French Admiral Villeneuve, sailed from the port of Cádiz in the south of Spain on 18 October 1805.

They encountered the British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson, recently assembled to meet this threat, in the Atlantic Ocean along the southwest coast of Spain, off Cape Trafalgar, near the town of Los Caños de Meca.

Villeneuve was uncertain about engaging the British, and the Franco-Spanish fleet failed to fully organize. In contrast, Nelson was decisive, organizing the British fleet into two columns, sailing straight into the enemy to pierce its wavering lines.
-In a particularly fierce battle, 27 British ships of the line fought 33 French and Spanish ships of the line.

The Franco-Spanish fleet lost 22 ships; the British lost none, a British victory.

HMS Mars was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 25 October 1794 at Deptford Dockyard. In the early part of the French Revolutionary Wars she was assigned to the Channel Fleet. In 1797 under Captain Alexander Hood she was prominent in the Spithead mutiny.

In 1798 at the Battle of the Raz de Sein she fought a famous single-ship duel with the French seventy-four Hercule, in the dusk near the Pointe du Raz on the coast of Brittany. Hercule attempted to escape through the Passage du Raz but the tide was running in the wrong direction and she was forced to anchor, giving Captain Hood the chance to attack at close quarters.

The two ships were of equal strength, but Hercule was newly commissioned; after more than an hour and a half of bloody fighting at close quarters she struck her flag, having lost over three hundred men. On Mars 31 men were killed and 60 wounded. Among the dead was Captain Hood.Mars fought at Trafalgar where she was heavily damaged as she took fire from five different French and Spanish seventy-fours. Among the 29 killed and 69 wounded in the action was her captain, George Duff.

In 1806, on service in the Channel fleet she took part in an action off Chasseron which led to the capture of four French ships. She afterwards served off Portugal and in the Baltic Sea. Fate Mars was placed in ordinary from 1813. She was broken up in 1823.

HMS Belleisle as a Téméraire class 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the French Navy, which later served in the Royal Navy. She was named Lion on 23 April 1790 and built at Rochefort from August 1791 until June 1794. She was renamed Marat on 28 September 1793 (7 months before being launched) and then Formidable on 25 May 1795, with the changing fortunes of the French Revolution.

Captained by William Hargood, she was the second ship in the British lee column at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and as such was engaged by the Franco-Spanish ships Achille, Aigle, Neptune, Fougueux, Santa Ana, Monarca and San Juan Nepomuceno. She was soon completely dismasted (the only British ship which suffered that fate), unable to manœuvre and largely unable to fight, as her sails blinded her batteries, but kept flying her flag for 45 minutes until the British ships behind her in the column came to her rescue. With 33 dead and 93 wounded, she was then towed to Gibraltar after the battle by the frigate HMS Naiad.

She took part in the action of 6 November 1794, managing to rake HMS Alexander.From 1811 she was in Portsmouth harbour, and in 1814 the decision was taken to have her broken up.

With hanging thread on the back ready for immediate home display.

Such an intriguing pleasing scene to the eye.

Incredible conversation piece for your guests.

A superb nautical collectors item such a great Christmas gift.

Provenance labels verso.

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Condition report.

Offered in fine used condition.

The front painting surface is in good overall order.Having somefoxing stains in places, the frame having various wear, scuffs, scratches, stains & minor losses commensurate with usage & age.

Dimensions in centimetres of the frame

High (64 cm)
Width (84 cm)
Length depth thickness of frame (4.5 cm)


Reserve: $10,160.00

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