{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O153479"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O153479/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT4790/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT4790/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BT4790","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O153479/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O153479","accessionNumber":"SD.1211","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"The first day's attack on the Castle of Aboukir by the Turkish Gun-boats having five British, and five Russian seamen in each, and assisted by the boats of the Swiftsure, octr: 24th","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Willyams, ordained curate in 1784, served as chaplain on board the Swiftsure, one of Nelson’s ships in the British campaign against Napoleon in the Mediterranean, 1798-1801. This watercolour is one of five in the Searight collection reproduced as aquatints in Willyams’s publication, A Voyage up the Mediterranean in his Majesty’s Ship the Swiftsure. (1802).  Napoleon had invaded Egypt in July 1798, and established himself in Cairo; however, in October that year his fleet was sunk by Nelson’s forces off Abu Qir. In his watercolours Willyams shows less interest in the naval action than in the people taking part in it, and in scenes of local life. Here the battle has been relegated to the background, while attention is focused on the amusing incident in the foreground of the Turkish captains retiring to a small boat in the shelter of a wreck to smoke their pipes.","physicalDescription":"Watercolour drawing","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Willyams, Cooper (Revd)","id":"A22038"},"association":{"text":"painter","id":"x36959"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour drawing","id":"x37878"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour, formerly stuck down on card","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"},{"text":"Orientalism","id":"x31272"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2008BT4790"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLD","id":"THES49658"},"free":"","case":"SCX","shelf":"9","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Egypt","id":"x29512"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1798","earliest":"1798-01-01","latest":"1798-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"21.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"36.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Inscribed with title and - on the right, is the wreck of a brig, behind which, the Turkish commanders retired during the action, to smoke their pipes.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"According to Rodney Searight: - ``Bt Appleby's, Aug.1973, £115'.","historicalContext":"Reproduced, with minor variations, as an etching and aquatint, in C. Willyams  A Voyage up the Mediterranean in His Majesty's Ship the Swiftsure, 1802,  facing p.96. See also SD.1291","briefDescription":"Watercolour, `The first day's attack on the Castle of Aboukir by the Turkish Gun-boats having five British, and five Russian seamen in each, and assisted by the boats of the Swiftsure, octr: 24th', 1798, by Revd Cooper Willyams","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Egypt","id":"x29512"},{"text":"Abu Qir","id":"x41667"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"Naval action at Abu Qir","id":"V645"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["SD.1211"],"accessionNumberNum":"1211","accessionNumberPrefix":"SD","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-09","recordCreationDate":"2008-04-24","availableToBook":false}}