Object numberOM-18655
DescriptionGerman Fleet at Scapa Flow - original etching by W.L.Wyllie RA, framed and glazed.
Label from '1919: The Scuttling of the German Fleet' at Orkney Museum, 4th May to 2nd November 2019:
W.L. Wyllie RA (1851-1931), German Fleet at Scapa Flow, etching on paper, 1918-1919
William Lionel Wyllie was born in London. His father, William Morrison Wyllie, was also a painter. W.L. Wyllie attended the Heatherley School of Fine Art before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1865, aged 15. Among his tutors were Edwin Landseer, John Everett Millais and Frederick Leighton.
Wyllie had a great love for the sea and sailing. He combined these interests to become a celebrated maritime artist, painting historical sea battles and contemporary naval activity, including an oil painting of the Review of the Grand Fleet in the Firth of Forth after the Armistice, now in the Scottish Maritime Museum at Irvine. The scene shows the moment when the Grand Fleet left the Firth to meet the German High Seas Fleet, before it was escorted to Scapa Flow. Sir Arthur Balfour, First Lord of the Admiralty, gave permission for Wyllie to cruise in Royal Navy ships in order to capture the event.
This etching shows the German fleet in Scapa Flow, along with a section of the boom defence and one of the drifters which guarded and opened and closed the nets.
Accession number 2016.029
Original backing from old frame is stored in attic drawers. EP 2023
Object nameEtching of German Fleet at Scapa Flow
Materialpaper, wood, glass