Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758-1805)
Horatio Nelson is generally regarded as the greatest officer in the history of the Royal Navy. His reputation is based on a series of remarkable victories, culminating in the Battle of Trafalgar where he was killed in his moment of triumph. The poet Byron referred to him as ‘Britannia’s God of War’.
This bust shows Nelson in his rear-admiral’s full-dress uniform, wearing the ribands of the Bath and Crescent, the stars of the Crescent (above), St Ferdinand (left), the Bath (right) and the two Naval gold medals awarded for St Vincent and the Nile, the latter in reverse inscribed: “NILE / FIRST AUGUST / 1798”.
This bust is a copy of the original which belongs to the Royal Museums Greenwich. Nelson originally sat for the bust in Vienna in 1800, a cast of his face being taken at the same time, so it could be finished after his departure. It was probably shipped to him in England in 1801. There it was subsequently much copied, especially following the Battle of Copenhagen in that year,
Franz Christian Thaller was a well-known Viennese sculptor, patronised both by the Emperor of Austria and the city itself. Little is known of Matthias Ranson, who may have been one of his pupils and assistants or who made the life mask from Nelson’s face on which the sculpture is largely based.
