Only a month after Trafalgar, on 22 November, a press advert by the publisher Josiah Boydell announced he would give a prize of 500 guineas for the best "Death of Nelson" painting, which he would then engrave.

Beatty also commissioned Devis to produce a half-length painting of Nelson as vice-admiral from the autopsy sketches, which he lent to Emma Hamilton (who later lost it in an accident whilst travelling), and illustrations for his Narratives.

However, Devis's was purchased by Nicholas Vansittart, Lord Bexley (envoy to the Danes at the time of the Battle of Copenhagen), who in 1825 presented it to the Naval Gallery, from which point onwards it became the better known of the two works.

As with its model, Benjamin West's 1777 The Death of General Wolfe (engraved by Boydell's uncle John), this painting takes liberties with the actual setting and people present.

The grouping, with Nelson's posture against a large timber of the ship's hull and role as the main light source in an otherwise dark painting, recalls the Deposition of Christ from the cross.