Operations in the Baltic, Crimea
oil on canvas
unsigned, attributed S. Norwood, frame plaque
information on the English Baltic fleet faintly inscribed, verso
7 x 8 5/8 inches.

The Royal Navy engaged Russian ships in battle following Czar Nicolas I's refusal to evacuate the Danubian Principalities, the impetus for the Crimean War (1853-1856). The fleet sailed from Spithead to the Baltic Sea on March 11, 1854, with 19 ships of the line, including the HMS Duke of Wellington, a 131-gun first-rate vessel possibly featured in the foreground. The largest ship in the Royal Navy, she was designated Napier's flagship throughout the entirety of the Baltic Campaign of 1854.