Naval heroism: John Schetky was a renowned maritime artist, and painted this, Queen Charlotte, when living at Waddon Lodge in Croydon
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A friend and colleague of Sir Walter Scott and JMW Turner, a painter to Queen Victoria and her family, John Schetky was fondly remembered as a professor at Addiscombe military college. Using the Minster archive, DAVID MORGAN traces the life and works of the artist
Stood out from the crowd: artist and teacher John Schetky
John Schetky and his wife Charlotte moved into Waddon Lodge in March 1837. Schetky had just taken up his new post as drawing professor at the East India Company Military College at Addiscombe and very much enjoyed the two-mile walk to work. He would continue in his post there until he retired in 1855, when aged 77.
Schetky was extremely popular with the cadets, earning accolades such as “a genial old salt” and “as good an old fellow as ever lived”. He also gained the nickname “Sepia Jack” because of his love for black and white prints.
The cadets at the college could pick him out at a distance because of his great height, his spikey white hair and his clothing, which some described as being “thrown on”. Schetky was someone who stood out from the crowd.
Once he had finished his first term at the college, Schetky took up his brush, palette and easel and did what he loved and what he was supremely good at: painting maritime scenes. That summer in Waddon, he composed and completed a watercolour entitled Queen Charlotte. It was a painting of a smack sailing out of the Scottish port of Leith.
The boat carried the mail between London and Edinburgh and was one on which Schetky had probably sailed to visit his old father who lived in the Scottish capital. In 1804, the captain of the vessel, William Nesbit, encountered a French privateer in the North Sea who fired a shot and signalled to the British vessel to surrender. Nesbit would have none of that and despite his limited firepower, fought back.
The Battle of Trafalgar: one of John Schetky’s most famous works
In an encounter that lasted over an hour, Nesbit forced the privateer to sail away empty-handed, even though he was very much outgunned.
The Queen Charlotte, together with another painting, were Schetky’s contribution to a charity bazaar held in Helston, Cornwall, in October 1837. Both paintings recently resurfaced and were put on the market. They were sold in 2016 at Bonhams in London for a total of £625.
It is strange to think of an artist toiling away in Croydon painting maritime scenes, but Schetky had been attracted to the sea from an early age.
Minster records: the baptismal register from 1838 shows the christening of Christiana Schetky, when her father was in his 60th year
Born in August 1778 in Edinburgh, John Christian Schetkywas the fourth son of Johann Schetky, a renowned Hungarian violinist and composer, who had made his home in Scotland. John Schetky was educated at the Royal High School in Edinburgh, where he met and formed a friendship with Walter Scott, the author of Victorian classics Rob Roy and Ivanhoe. They would remain lifelong friends.
Schetky expressed an early wish to join the Royal Navy and at the beginning of 1792, when he was 14, his parents relaxed their opposition to the idea by putting his name down to join the crew of the frigate HMS Hind. However, when the time came for him to join up later that year, they withdrew their support and he remained at home in Edinburgh.
Schetky soon found his life’s focus. In 1793, he began helping his mother to teach drawing to a class of ladies. Her son proved to be both genial and skilful. His popularity as a teacher remained with him for the rest of his life. About this time, as well as studying under the artist Alexander Naismith, Schetky began to teach drawing on his own account. One of his early patrons was the Duchess of Buccleuch.
In 1802, Schetky went to Oxford, where he lived and taught art for six years.
During his vacations, Schetky went on walking holidays, sketching views and people as he went. In 1807, he was asked by Sir Walter Scott to illustrate his poem, Lay of the Last Minstrel. Schekty visited the locations in the Scottish borders mentioned in the poem and sketched out a series of drawings which Scott described as “being superb”.
In 1808, Schetky was appointed as a junior professor of civil drawing at the Royal Military College, Marlow, the precursor of Sandhurst. Three years later, he began teaching art at the Royal Naval College in Portsmouth. It was while he was at Portsmouth that his career really took off. Being appointed as an honorary member of HMS Victory mess, he was able to rub shoulders with the rich and famous and get many commissions.
He also made an impression on the future naval officers whom he taught. The Wager, A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann, a recent BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, focused on the ill-fated voyage by Admiral Robert Fitzroy around Cape Horn. Sailing in waters which had yet to be fully surveyed, Fitzroy sent a note to his old drawing teacher that he had named part of the coastline of Landfall Island: Cape Schetky. Not everyone gets such an honour.
The Loss of Royal George: one of Schetky’s best-known works, it shows an 18th Century naval disaster in which 900 crew died off Spithead
Schetky spent 25 years at Portsmouth, only leaving when the college closed down. He quickly got a new post at Addiscombe. One source noted that Schetky was particularly pleased with the appointment, as he was timetabled for only two days a week.
Schetky and his wife quickly settled into their new life at Waddon Lodge, one of a collection of homes, long since gone, near Waddon Mill, where Mill Lane and Waddon ponds are today.
The old adage of “new home, new baby” certainly came true for them. The baptism records of Croydon Parish Church show that on Monday February 27 1838 they brought their newborn daughter Christiana to church to be christened by the vicar, Rev Henry Lindsay.
By that stage in their lives, the Schetkys could be described as “veteran parents”, as John was 60 and Charlotte was 40. Christiana and her elder sister, Susan, both living at 11 Kent Terrace, Regents Park and described as spinsters, were the executrixes to their father’s will after he died at that address in January 1874. Susan was born in Portsmouth in 1831, just a year after her parents had to endure the grief of losing an infant son.
Some people might be looking to take life more easily after the age of 60, but some of the works Schetky was to paint in the next decade turned out to be his best-known.
The Bombardment of Algiers which was commissioned by Lord Hardwicke and completed in 1841.
The Battle of Trafalgar was completed around the same time and is now in the Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut.
The Loss of HMS Royal George, completed in 1840, is now in the Tate Collection, though currently not on display. Schetky first sold this painting for £250.
Life wasn’t always easy in Croydon for the Schetkys, though. The town suffered badly from a cholera epidemic in 1849. Schekty was struck low by the disease and at one point was dangerously ill. He recovered, his doctor saying of him, “His constitution was 10 years younger than his age.”
Schekty wrote, “As for me I am quite myself again, all but my strength. I cannot walk so fast or as far as before.”
The 1851 directory of Croydon showed that Schetky had moved house. He was then listed as living in a private road which went to Park Hill Farm.
Directory: the 1851 volume shows the Schetkys living in Park Hill
When he died in January 1874 at the ripe old age of 95, there were many who were keen to sing the praises of the friendly artist who seemed to get on with everyone.
They remembered his various links he had with the Royal Family. He was made Marine Painter in Ordinary to William IV and subsequently to Queen Victoria. She commissioned him for particular projects, initially wanting him to capture the moment King Louis Phillippe arrived in Portsmouth in 1844.
King Leopold of Belgium was astonished at Schetky’s skill at being able to draw almost anything despite the swell and the movement of the boat in which they were sailing. The Princess of Wales, Alexandra, kept the drawing Schetky made of her Royal Embarkation at Gravesend in 1863.
People remembered, particularly, how helpful and kind Schetky was to others. Sometimes it was financial, on other occasions he gave generously of his time. He even supplied JMW Turner with sketches of HMS Victory so that the great master could complete his painting of the Battle of Trafalgar.
Schetky painted right through to the end of his long life. In general terms he has been described as “a Scottish painter specialising in maritime subjects”. Perhaps an additional phrase might be added: “He lived and worked for much of his life in Croydon.”
- David Morgan is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster, who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- The 550-year rise and fall of Croydon’s annual Walnut Fair
- A Dickensian tale which adds extra Phiz to its Croydon twist
- Minster archive reveals butchers, bakers and… peruke-makers
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
As another Croydon link, Admiral Robert Fitzroy (mentioned in the article) has a blue plaque at 140 Church Road, Upper Norwood. He also seems to have another blue plaque in Chelsea.
https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/admiral-robert-fitzroy-se19