LUNY, Thomas

(b. 1759 Cornwall, d. 1837 Teignmouth)

English painter. He was a member of the Thames group of marine painters around Deptford, following the tradition of the van de Velde family, Dutch 17th-century marine painters. Luny was a pupil of Francis Holman (active 1760-1790) by 1773 and first exhibited in 1777 at the Society of Artists, showing Storm and Shipwreck (untraced). He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1780 until 1793 and then only in 1802 and in the year of his death. His absence from the Academy exhibitions after 1793 gave rise to the erroneous assumption of his enlistment in the navy during the Napoleonic conflict, but there is no mention of Luny in Admiralty records.

Engagement between Sir George Brydges Rodney and the Spanish Squadron

In 1779 Spain entered the war for American Independence. Their immediate goal was the recapture of Gibraltar and Minorca (British strategic strongholds). With this new threat, England’s primary concern was the fortification of these strongholds. The engagement between Admiral Rodney and the Spanish squadron, commanded by Don Juan de Langara, was on January 16, 1780 near Cape St. Vincent. It ended with a British victory.

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The Lord North, Seen from Three Positions

The Lord North was an East Indiaman, launched in 1770. In April of 1781, she was one of six Indiamen (carrying troops to the Cape of Good Hope before proceeding on to the East) that were involved in the Battle of Porto Praya.

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