John Cleveley the Elder (c.1712, Southwark

Southwark

Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...

 – 1777) was an English marine artist. Not from an artistic background, Cleveley's father intended him to follow the family trade of joinery

Joiner

A joiner differs from a carpenter in that joiners cut and fit joints in wood that do not use nails. Joiners usually work in a workshop since the formation of various joints generally requires non-portable machinery. A carpenter normally works on site...

, and so he set up as a carpenter or shipwright in around 1742 at the Deptford

Deptford

Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...

 Dockyard. Continuing his work in that area throughout his life (indeed, he is referred to as ‘carpenter belonging to His Majesty’s Ship Victory

HMS Victory

HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805....

, in the pay of His M[ajest]ys Navy’ in letters of administration granted by the Admiralty in 1778 to his widow, probably when she was first fitting out), from about 1745 he also worked as a painter, mostly ship portraits, dockyard scenes of shipbuilding and launches, and some other marine views. They combined his knowledge of shipbuilding with accurate architectural and topographical detail. Apparently mostly self-taught, it is possible that dockyard ship-painters also gave him some training in this area. He toured East Anglia

East Anglia

East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...

, and produced some paintings from notes made on that trip.

Works

• "Sixth-Rate on the Stocks", now in the National Maritime Museum
  National Maritime Museum
  The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...
  
  , London.
• "The Royal Yacht Caroline", NMM
• "The off Deptford at the launch of the , 1755", NMM (though the former ship was only launched a year later, and would have been of too deep a draught to appear where it does)
• The theme for a series of six paintings, displayed in the parlour of one of the survivors of the Luxborough Galley
  Luxborough Galley
  The Luxborough Galley was an English ship involved in a notorious maritime incident during the 18th century.The vessel, commanded by William Kellaway, was 340 tonne and fitted to carry 26 guns. She was employed by the South Sea Company in a triangular trade route, transporting cotton goods, slaves...
  
  , was repeated in The Loss of the 'Luxborough' Galley in 1727 and the Escape of Some of her Crew (Greenwich Hospital coll., NMM).

Issue

• John Cleveley the Younger
  John Cleveley the Younger
  John Cleveley the Younger was the son of John Cleveley the Elder. He and his twin brother Robert were both, like their father, marine painters...
  
   (1747–86) and Robert Cleveley
  Robert Cleveley
  Robert Cleveley was an English maritime painter.His father and twin brother were also artists, with John the Younger gaining some training in watercolours from Paul Sandby, previously a teacher at the Royal...
  
   (1747–1809), twins, both artists
• James Cleveley, ship’s carpenter on the during Cook’s last Pacific voyage, 1776–80.

External links

• Biography (National Maritime Museum, London)
• "The Cleveley Family", at Portcities