Varia: kwadrantschildering
Het National Maritime Museum, Greenwich,
heeft uit 1805 van Robert Willoughby een
goed beschreven prachtportret: 'This merchant
captain, painted when he was eighty-two or
eighty-three-years-old, is thought to be the
owner of the ship in the background, since, for
the purpose of the
painting, his arms
are on a plain blue
ensign flying on the
ship's ensign staff.
He is holding a rare
quadrant designed by
the insurance broker
Caleb Smith who in
1734 designed an
astroscope for
taking Altitudes at
Sea without a Hori
zon and who a
few years later pro
duced his 'New Sea
Quadrant'. Smith's
instruments were
made by the mathe
matical instrument
maker Thomas Heath
who was active from
1714-73. Caleb
Smith's quadrant was
never very popular
because it competed
directly with John
Hadley's octant, in
vented at much the
same time, and was
inferior in perfor
mance. The painting
is signed in the lower
left 'R Willoughby.
Pinx' and inscribed
'Born in 1722/Por-
trait taken in 1805'.
A portrait painter
called Willoughby,
however, does not
appear to be recorded, but the artist may be
Robert Willoughby (1768-1843), the marine
painter.'
(https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/portrait-
of-a-merchant-navy-captain-176143)
132
2018-3 De Hollandse Cirkel
