HMS CAVALIER - Original Oil on Canvas

A fascinating early original oil painting by Robert Taylor, completed in January 1978 and depicting HMS Cavalier laid up at Husbands Boat Yard, Southampton.

Created at a formative point in Robert’s career, the painting is markedly different from the sweeping aviation and maritime compositions for which he would later become internationally renowned. Instead, Robert adopts an unusual montage-style approach, bringing together individual studies of Cavalier's decks, bridge, armament and superstructure around a central portrait of the ship and her crest.

Its date places the work at an important moment in Cavalier's preservation story. In 1977, Earl Mountbatten instigated the first HMS Cavalier Trust, which purchased the destroyer and brought her to Southampton with the intention of establishing a permanent museum and memorial.

Robert himself became closely connected with that campaign. His better-known painting of Cavalier at sea was reproduced as a limited-edition print, signed by Mountbatten, to help raise funds for the ship's preservation, a project subsequently described as one of the artist's first steps towards international recognition.

Today, HMS Cavalier is preserved at The Historic Dockyard Chatham as the last surviving Second World War destroyer built for the Royal Navy and forms the centrepiece of the National Destroyer Memorial.

For collectors of Robert Taylor, this substantial 1978 original provides an unusual glimpse into an early period of his career, complete with his earlier styled “Robert Taylor – 78” signature and a composition quite unlike the style that would later make his name.

Original oil painting. 36" x 24".