Panorama of the Battle of Trafalgar, c.1820 (watercolour)

Creator: William Heath This panorama was originally mounted as a complete circle about 10 feet 6 inches (3.2m) across. Only a few spectators at a time would have been able to view it, by stepping up into the centre from below. It was probably lit by daylight from above, round the edges of an inner masking top, with the bottom also masked to create the illusion that the viewer was standing in the middle of the battle. The episodes read from right to left: · Cadiz harbour, with the combined Franco-Spanish fleet emerging · A stern view of Nelson’s double-column order of battle advancing to intercept the enemy. Victory (with three stern galleries) is at the head of the left or weather line · The French Achille on fire, a blaze which started about 4.30 p.m. until the ship blew up about 5.45 p.m. The schooner Pickle which brought back news of the battle is on her left and the panorama as a whole has unusually good representation of the smaller vessels in the fleet · Nelson shot on the quarterdeck of Victory, from the Redoutable (seen stern-to on the right) about 1.15 p.m. The individuals around Nelson are intended as portraits, though none are close likenesses. Dr Beatty and Captain Hardy are to his right. The Royal Marine behind and supporting him is Sergeant Secker, with the Revd Scott to the left and two seamen carrying the body of Captain Adair of the Marines, further left. This is a miniature version of the very large illusionistic circular panoramas invented by Robert Barker, whose son Henry exhibited a version of Trafalgar off Leicester Square, London, in 1806 (cat. no. 000). William Heath was an artist noted for military subjects and ‘penny-plain, tuppence-coloured’ theatrical portraits. He was an illegitimate son of the engraver James Heath and the Nelson scene here is partly based on his father’s highly successful print of 1811 from Benjamin West’s painting, The Death of Lord Nelson. It also owes something to Samuel Drummond’s version. Like West, Heath includes Beatty and Scott, who were not on deck when Nelson was shot. Why this panorama was painted is still unknown. It may have been as a promotional attraction in one of London’s print shops and is the only known surviving early panorama of Trafalgar.