A RARE oil painting by a Cheshire artist who painted for Queen Victoria is expected to fetch £20,000 at auction today.
It is only the fourth oil painting by Sir Oswald Walters Brierly to come under the hammer in the past 10 years.
The picture, entitled A Trading Schooner Overhauling A First Rate Off Garrison Point, Sheerness, is unusual because Brierly is better known for his watercolours.
Queen Victoria was among those who admired Brierly's work which led to his appointment of Marine Painter in Ordinary to the Queen in 1874.
He went on to accompany Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, around the world in 1867 and travelled up the Nile with the Prince of Wales the following year.
Brierly, born in Chester in 1817, was knighted in 1885. The son of Thomas Brierly, a Chester doctor and amateur artist, Brierly gained his grounding in art at the academy of Henry Sass in Bloomsbury.
He studied naval architecture and rigging at Plymouth and exhibited drawings of two men-at-war at the Royal Academy in 1839.
He then spent a period studying navigation and in 1841 began a voyage around the world which ended when he decided to become a colonist and settle in Auckland.
An area on the coast of New South Wales was named Brierly Point to commemorate his connection with the colony.
In 1851 Brierly was asked by the Hon Henry Keppel to join a voyage from New Zealand to England via Chile, Peru and Mexico. Keppel's account of the voyage, published in 1853, was illustrated by eight lithographs by Brierly who was made a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society on his return.
He then joined another voyage with Keppel and his sketches were sent home for publication in the Illustrated London News.
Following a third voyage to the Black Sea, Brierly was commanded by the Queen to take sketches from the Royal yacht of the great naval review at Spithead, which was to lead to his appointment as Marine Painter in Ordinary.
Brierly married Sarah Fry in 1851. Following her death in 1870 he married Louise Marie, eldest daughter of the painter Louis Huard of London and Brussels.
Following his death in 1894 an exhibition of 173 of Brierly's works was held at Pall Mall in London.
The 30ins by 50ins painting is to be auctioned at Bonhams in London.
Bonhams spokesman Peter Rees said: "We are not sure when this particular painting dates from but it is a magnificent example of Brierly's work.
"As he was not a nobleman he was appointed Marine Painter in Ordinary.
"This probably meant he was a court painter.
"He would have been commissioned to paint specific maritime images for the Queen.
"These would mostly have been done in watercolour which was Brierly's preferred method.
"That is what makes his oil paintings rare and valuable.
"An oil painting of Brierly's of the Spanish Armada fetched £10,000 at auction some years ago."
The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, and galleries in Melbourne and Sydney, own some of Brierly's pictures...SUPL:
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