162 - ATTRIBUTED TO LEONARDO GUZZARDI (ITALIAN, ACT. 1798-1800)

ATTRIBUTED TO LEONARDO GUZZARDI (ITALIAN, ACT. 1798-1800) Portrait of Captain Charles Beecroft R.N. with a pendant miniature of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith Oil on canvas 24 x 18in. (61 x 45.5cm.) Captain Charles Beecroft (1780-1859) entered the navy in 1794, serving in H.M.S. Diamond (Captain William Sidney Smith). In April 1796, Beecroft joined Smith and Midshipman John Westley Wright in a failed boat action at Le Havre, during which Beecroft was wounded, and all three men were taken prisoner. Smith and Wright were sent to prison in Paris, from where they subsequently escaped, whilst Beecroft was freed in a prisoner exchange. Made lieutenant in 1802, Beecroft rejoined Smith in H.M.S. Tigre, serving in Egypt under the overall command of Admiral Nelson, then at the capture of Capri in 1806 and the destruction of a Turkish squadron in the Dardanelles, when he was mentioned in Smith’s dispatches. Beecroft’s participation, alongside Smith, in the defence of Sicily—to which the King and Queen of Naples had sought refuge—is recognised in this portrait by the Neapolitan Court Painter Leonardo Guzzardi, possibly at the direction of King Ferdinand IV. He is depicted in dress uniform and wearing the Sultan of Turkey’s gold medal for Egypt, holding a book resting on a map of Sicily with dividers, seated in front of a bookcase and alongside a portrait miniature of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith (1764-1840). Framed 38 x 33in.