Art-Stanfield-The Battle of Trafalgar TB

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 30-Sep-22 this one has survived for 6.0 years but it had been moved by only 20 cachers, for an average drop every 110 days. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

I have already released several groups of art-themed travel bugs.  While I have seen numerous works by British artists in my travels, I find they are underrepresented among my TBs.  This is one in a small series to correct that oversight.

Clarkson Frederick Stanfield RA (1793 -1867) was a prominent English marine painter; he is often though inaccurately called William Clarkson Stanfield.  He was born at Sunderland, the son of James Field Stanfield an Irish-born author, actor and former seaman. Clarkson was named after Thomas Clarkson, the slave trade abolitionist, whom his father knew, and this was the only forename he used, although there is reason to believe Frederick was a second one.

Stanfield probably inherited artistic talent from his mother, who is said to have been an artist but died in 1801. He was briefly apprenticed to a coach decorator in 1806, but left owing to the drunkenness of his master's wife and joined a South Shields collier to become a sailor. In 1808 he was pressed into the Royal Navy, serving in the guardship HMS Namur at Sheerness. Discharged on health grounds in 1814, he then made a voyage to China in 1815 on the East Indiaman Warley and returned with many sketches.

In 1816 Stanfield was engaged as a decorator and scene-painter at the Royalty Theatre in Wellclose Square, London. He was afterwards employed at the Coburg theatre, Lambeth, and in 1823 he became a resident scene-painter at the Drury Lane theatre, where he rose rapidly to fame through the huge quantity of spectacular scenery which he produced for that house until 1834.  Stanfield abandoned scenery painting in 1834, although he made exceptions for two personal friends. He designed scenery for the stage productions of William Charles Macready, and for the amateur theatricals of Charles Dickens.

Stanfield then developed his skills as an easel painter, especially of marine subjects.  He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1820 and continued through the rest of his life.  He contributed a long series of powerful and highly popular works to the Academy, both of marine subjects and landscapes, from his travels at home and in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Ireland.  He was elected Associate Member of the Royal Academy in 1832, and became a full Academician in February 1835. His elevation was in part a result of the interest of William IV who, having admired his work, commissioned two paintings from him of the Opening of New London Bridge (1832) and The Entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. Both remain in the Royal Collection.

I really like seascapes.  It was an easy choice to feature this painting on a travel bug.