Pellerin - Lot 130

Pellerin PATRICE PELLERIN L'ÉPERVIER Archives Secrètes, Dupuis 2006 Original plate no. 58. Signed. India ink on paper 35 × 47.4 cm (13.78 × 18.66 in.) How do you depict an 18th-century naval battle today? The only reliable sources are the painters of the time. But they only ever drew or painted these scenes from a distance, which is what I've done here myself, emphasizing the majesty and beauty of the ships maneuvering, the movement of the sails, the smoke of the gunfire... But when it comes to depicting combat inside these ships, there's nothing. No painter has ever attempted it. We can only imagine it. For the large square at the bottom, I used as my source a drawing by the Van Blarenberghe family, showing the entrance to the port of Brest protected by its gigantic castle. A very pleasant page to draw. Patrice Pellerin