Robert Cleveley was one of the leading British marine painters of the eighteenth century. Born at Deptford in 1747, he was the twin brother of the marine painter John Cleveley the Younger (1747–1786) and the son of John Cleveley the Elder, a shipwright and artist employed at Deptford Royal Dockyard.
Like his father and brother, Robert began his working life at Deptford dockyard, where he worked as a caulker before going to sea. His first-hand familiarity with ships and the Royal Navy was to become fundamental to his work, lending his marine paintings an unusual degree of accuracy and authority. He became particularly well known for his naval paintings, depicting naval actions and the great ships of the Royal Navy.
By the 1780s Cleveley was marine painter to the Duke of York and marine draughtsman to the Duke of Clarence, the third son of George III, producing watercolours associated with various royal and naval visits. He was also a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy for more than twenty years, working successfully in both oil paintings and watercolours.
Perhaps the high point of Cleveley’s career came with his paintings commemorating Lord Howe’s victory over the French fleet on the ‘Glorious First of June’ in 1794. The large-scale oils were exhibited in Bond Street and became widely known through engravings, establishing Cleveley as an important recorder of the great naval events of the eighteenth century.
Robert’s watercolours have often been confused with those of his twin brother, John Cleveley the Younger. The frequent absence of signatures meant that, during the heyday of English watercolour collecting, the same drawing could be attributed to one brother in one collection and subsequently to the other. Robert’s mature watercolours can, however, reveal a less metallic and slightly more subtle touch than John’s, whose work tends towards stronger contrasts of light and shade.
Cleveley’s finest marine paintings and watercolours combine meticulous draughtsmanship with an intimate understanding of ships and the sea. Rigging, gunports, small craft and the hulls of great men-of-war are rendered with remarkable precision, while expansive skies, changing light and stretches of open water give his compositions their atmosphere and scale. His own time at sea and connections with the Royal Navy lend these maritime scenes a compelling sense of authenticity.
Cleveley died in 1809 after falling from the cliffs at Dover. Despite his considerable reputation during his lifetime and his long exhibiting career at the Royal Academy, he remains a comparatively little-known figure today. His work nevertheless occupies an important place in the distinctive tradition of eighteenth-century British marine painting.