Naval battle images like The Four Days' Battle make beautiful puzzles. That's why most jigsaw puzzle manufacturers have used these images in their catalogs for decades. Several classic puzzles come to mind, like the extraordinary 6000 pieces version of The Battle of Lepanto, by Andrea Vicentino. However, for some reason naval battles are not popular anymore. As a consequence, all those puzzles are now out of catalog and very difficult to find. In fact, the last time a classic naval battle puzzle puzzle appeared was 1998, when Educa manufactured, again, The Battle of Lepanto, by H. Letter.
Some puzzle fans say that the name naval battle is not the best for this type of puzzles. Instead, the name should be sky and sea puzzles. After all, most of the pieces belong to huge areas of sea and sky, while the ships are often just a small part of the image. While that is true, and sometimes there are large areas of solid tones that are very challenging, the truth is that most of these puzzles are magnificent. The Four Days' Battle, which Ravensburger manufactured in 1974, is a good example. It is, however, unfortunate that we need to go back more...
Tag Archives: Naval Battle
1500, F.X. Schmid, Tribute to Nelson, William E. D. Stuart
23
Jul
The title of this naval battle is Tribute to Nelson, by the British artist William E.D. Stuart. He flourished as a painter in the mid-19th century, but there is not much information available about this painter or his works. That is surprising, since he has left some exceptional paintings, like this one.
We are assuming it refers to British Admiral Horatio Nelson, but there is no reference to any particular battle or war event. Based on the information on the box, the reproduction for the manufacturer F.X. Schmid was a courtesy of the Rehs Galleries Inc. in New York, USA. After having searched the inventory, I haven’t found this painting, and it is very likely that it went to some private collector.
I completed the puzzle in the summer of 2014. These naval battle puzzles are challenging when they are larger, but in this case it was doable, because there are many different fields of color. It has a lot of detail and variation in shades. Most naval battles have a lot of sea and sky pieces, and they are difficult, but in this painting the scene is full and there are plenty of references, so the puzzle is easy.
Tribute to Nelson and...