Spanish Men of War and gun boats inside Havana Harbour during the bombardment, with a view of the city and the Moro Castle in the distance;
and A view of the city from the North West, with the Moro Castle, with His Majesty's Sloops of War, Bonetta and Cygnet, assisting to open the booms, and His Majesty's land forces in flat boats going to take possession of the Punto Castle and the North Gate of the city, 14th August 1762

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 2 June 1919, lot 44 (as two of a set of four, entitled 'Harbour Scenes, with men-of-war'), to Margi for £39.18.0.

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Structural Condition The canvases have old linings which are still providing sound structural supports and have successfully secured the overall pattern of drying craquelure which is most evident in the skies of both paintings. Paint surface The paint surfaces have very discoloured varnish layers and would undoubtedly be transformed by cleaning. I would be very confident of a considerable colour change and a great improvement in the overall appearance. It is is very encouraging to note that the fine details of the paintings appear to be exceptionally well preserved. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows only the most minimal spots of inpainting. There may, of course, be other retouchings beneath the old discoloured varnish layers which are not identifiable under ultra-violet light, but I could find no evidence of this. "Spanish men of war and gunboats...." has some vertical drip marks in the varnish layers and a more prominent canvas grain than it's pair. Summary The pair of paintings would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition and should respond extremely well to cleaning and revarnishing.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The Siege of Havana was one of the most important military operations of the Seven Years War. Between March and August 1762 British naval and ground forces under the joint command of General George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle (1724–1772) and Admiral Sir George Pocock (1706–1792) besieged and captured the city of Havana, the capital of Spanish Cuba and Spain’s principal naval base in the West Indies. The siege, which lasted five months, and the final assault on the city cost the British dearly, with almost three thousand of the fifteen thousand British troops who took part killed or wounded, whilst Cuban forces lost over ten thousand men during the fighting, as well as to tropical diseases such as yellow fever which ravaged armies in the Caribbean during the eighteenth century. The victory was decisive to the conflict’s outcome, however, forcing the Spanish to relinquish Florida to the British and sue for peace at the Treaty of Paris the following year. With Havana occupied, Spain also effectively lost the battle for naval supremacy which had been raging for over two hundred years, and British maritime hegemony in the Gulf of Mexico was secured.    

Among the men-of-war under Pocock's command was the 66 gun H.M.S. Orford, commanded by Captain Marriot Arbuthnot. Serving on the Orford, as one of its lieutenants was Philip Orsbridge, a talented amateur draftsman, who recorded every stage of the approach, siege and capture of the town from his seaward vantage point in drawings. On his return to England Orsbridge commissioned Serres for a set of twelve paintings, based on his drawings taken at the scene, from which a series of prints was issued to selected subscribers. The full set of paintings must have been completed by 1764, and seven of which are known and are all of a correspondingly small size, being 15 1/2  by 24 1/2  in. The artist produced a number of paintings of various aspects of the engagement in the following years, some of which are alternative versions of those used in the prints, whilst others are quite different from the engravings. The most comprehensive collection of these is the group of paintings belonging to the Albermarle family, currently on loan to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, the majority of which are dated between 1770 and 1775. These painting seem to fall primarily into two groups. Those depicting the military side of the operation, which are, with one exception, of a correspondingly smaller size and were probably painted for the Earl of Albermarle; and those depicting the naval action, which are on a larger scale, that were probably commissioned by the Earl's younger brother, Augustus Keppel, the naval second-in-command, whose flagship H.M.S. Valiant (74 guns) is often given a position of prominence.¹     

By the mid-1760s Dominic Serres was established as one of the principal marine landscape painters in London. In 1768 he exhibited two views of the Siege of Havana at the Society of Artist. Number 104, entitled The storming of the Moro-Castle at Havanah, and number 153, A View of the Spanish men of war, frigates, and galleons, in the harbour of the Havanah at the reduction of that place, with a view of the Moro-Castle at the mouth of the harbour.

1. See A. Russett, Dominic Serres 1719–1793. War Artist to the Navy, Woodbridge 2001, pp. 46–63.