10 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #27

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1863 - 1923
Arrival of the Boats, c. 1898
Oil on canvas 
Private Collection

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the sunlight of his native land. More

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1863 - 1923
Arrival of the Fishing Boats on the beach, Valencia, c. 1898
Oil on canvas
50 cm (19.69 in.), 98 cm (38.58 in.)
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes - Buenos Aires  (Argentina)

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1863 - 1923
Beach at Valencia, c. 1904
Oil on canvas
Height: 46 cm (18.11 in.), Width: 116 cm (45.67 in.)
Private Collection

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1863 - 1923
Beach at Valencia (also known as Afternoon Sun), c. 1908
Oil on canvas 
Private Collection

Valencia was founded as a Roman colony in 138 BC, and called Valentia Edetanorum. In 714 Moroccan and Arab Moors occupied the city, introducing their language, religion and customs; they implemented improved irrigation systems and the cultivation of new crops as well, being capital of the Taifa of Valencia. In 1238 the Christian king James I of Aragon reconquered the city and divided the land among the nobles who helped him conquer it. In the 18th century Philip V of Spain abolished the privileges as punishment to the kingdom of Valencia for aligning with the Habsburg side in the War of the Spanish Succession. Valencia was the capital of Spain when Joseph Bonaparte moved the Court there in the summer of 1812. It also served as capital between 1936 and 1937, during the Second Spanish Republic.

The city is situated on the banks of the Turia, on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula, fronting the Gulf of Valencia on the Mediterranean Sea. More Valencia

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1863 - 1923
The Arrival of the Boats, c. 1907
Oil on canvas 
Height: 105 cm (41.34 in.), Width: 196.5 cm (77.36 in.)
Private Collection

Edward Moran, 1829 - 1901
NEW YORK BAY
Oil on canvas
36 by 66 1/2 inches, (91.4 by 168.9 cm)
Private Collection

Edward Moran (August 19, 1829 in Bolton, Lancashire, England – June 8, 1901 in New York City) was an American artist of maritime paintings. Moran was born in England on August 19, 1829. Following in the footsteps of his father's profession, he learned to operate a hand-loom at a young age, though he would often be found sketching with charcoal on the white fabric instead of plying the shuttle. His family first emigrated to Maryland in 1844, and then to Philadelphia a year later.

It was in Philadelphia around 1845 that Edward apprenticed under James Hamilton and landscape painter Paul Weber; Hamilton guided Moran specifically in the style of marine paintings. In the 1850s Moran began to make a name for himself in the Philadelphia artistic scene; working in the same studio as his younger brother, famous American painter Thomas Moran, Edward received commissions and even completed some lithographic work. In 1862, he traveled to London and became a pupil in the Royal Academy. 

Edward Moran, 1829 - 1901
NEW YORK BAY
Detail

In 1885, at the height of his career, Moran began on what would be considered his most important work - a series of 13 paintings representing the Marine History of the United States. He chose to have thirteen paintings in the series because of the significance of the number in American history (13 colonies, 13 stars and stripes on the original US flag, etc.). The subjects include Leif Ericsson, Christopher Columbus, Hernando de Soto, Henry Hudson, and Admiral Dewey, among others.[3] Not long after their completion, the series was displayed at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. More

Edward Moran, 1829 - 1901
SHIP AT SEA
Oil on canvas
20 1/2 by 30 inches, (52.1 by 76.2 cm)
Private Collection

Sir Noël Coward, (British, 1900-1973)
The Yacht 
Oil on canvas
50.5 x 40.5cm (19 7/8 x 15 15/16in)
Private Collection

Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".

Born in Teddington, south-west London, Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works, screenplays, poetry, several volumes of short stories Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works.

At the outbreak of the Second World War Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943, and was knighted in 1969. More Noël Peirce Coward 

Sir Noël Coward (British, 1900-1973)
Fisher Boys, Jamaica 
Oil on canvas board
36 x 26cm (14 3/16 x 10 1/4in).
Private Collection

Campbell Archibald Mellon, (British, 1876-1955)
Kessingland beach 
Oil on board
23.5 x 30.5cm (9 1/4 x 12in).
Private Collection

Kessingland, King's land,  is a large village in the Waveney District of the English county of Suffolkt. It is of interest to archaeologists as Palaeolithic and Neolithic implements have been found here; the remains of an ancient forest lie buried on the seabed.

There has been a settlement here since Palaeolithic times. Between the Hundred River and Latmer Dam was once a large estuary which was used by the Vikings and Romans. The sea provided the village with its main livelihood. More Kessingland

Campbell Archibald Mellon (British, 1876-1955) was born in Berkshire, and moving to Nottingham in 1903 to work as a travelling salesman. He was determined on an artist's life in Norfolk after witnessing World War One horrors. His nickname of Melancholy Mellon reflected both the muddy palette of his early land-locked pictures and his memories of the trenches.

Mellon moved to a house overlooking Gorleston harbour – and for three years became Arnesby Brown's only known student. They were to remain life-long friends and to die within weeks of one another. 

But while Arnesby Brown was the painter-poet of the marshes, Mellon excelled in people-packed scenes on the beach below his studio.

He captured the fleeting glories of the English seaside summer, he stressed a celebratory brightness by often painting directly into the sun – lighting up his teeming cast beneath a sky possibly bearing the cumulus clouds that might rain on the paddlers and promenaders within minutes. He was the portraitist of passing pleasure. More Campbell Archibald Mellon Campbell Archibald Mellon






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12 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #26

William H. Yorke, (British, 1847-1921)
Canadian Brigantine *Aeronaut* from Nova Scotia, ca. 1888
Oil on canvas
60 x 90 cm (24 by 36 inch)

The Aeronaut flies the Canadian Merchant ensign with a crest in the middle of the red field. The crest, adopted in the mid 1880s, differentiates it from the British Merchant ensign however most Canadian vessels continued to use the standard British Merchant ensign. In size, composition, paint handling, the manner in which details of the ship are rendered and especially the reflection of the bow and stern in the water are all characteristic of W H Yorke. The wooden brigantine Aeronaut was built in 1886, Belliveau's Cove, Nova Scotia and measured 139.5 feet in length with 446 gross tonnage. More The Aeronaut 

William H. Yorke (British, 1847-1921)
Canadian Brigantine *Aeronaut* from Nova Scotia, ca. 1888
Detail, an enlarged detail view of the bow with the Skerries reef in the background

A skerry is a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for human habitation; it may simply be a rocky reef. A skerry can also be called a low sea stack. More skerry

William H. Yorke (British, 1847-1921) see below

Antonio Jacobsen, 1850-1921
THE SURPRISE, c.  1919
Oil on paperboard
20 by 36 inches, (50.8 by 91.4 cm)
Private Collection

The second USS Surprise and third American naval ship of the name was a ketch that served in the United States Navy from 1815 to 1820.

Surprise was purchased by the U.S. Navy at New Orleans, Louisiana, in March 1815 for operations in a small squadron commanded by Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson against pirates and slave traders.

On 18 June 1818, Surprise, commanded by Lieutenant Isaac M'Keever, captured the schooners Merino and Louisa, which carried between them 25 slaves. M'Keever took the prizes to Mobile, Alabama, where they were condemned after prolonged litigation.

In the autumn of 1818, Surprise captured a buccaneer schooner which had been operating out of Galveston, Texas, under Mexican colors. On board the prize was General Humbert, a Frenchman, who was the head of the nest of pirates at Galveston. Surprise was sold at New Orleans in 1820. More The second USS Surprise 

Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen (November 2, 1850 – February 2, 1921) was a Danish-born American maritime artist known as the "Audubon of Steam Vessels". He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark where he attended the Royal Academy of Design before heading across the Atlantic Ocean. He arrived in the United States in August 1873 and settled in West Hoboken, New Jersey (now Union City, New Jersey), across the Hudson River from Manhattan and New York Harbor. Jacobsen got his start painting pictures of ships on safes, and as his reputation grew, he was asked to do portraits of ships by their owners, captains and crew members, with many of his works sold for five dollars.
Jacobsen painted more than 6,000 portraits of sail and steam vessels, making him "the most prolific of marine artists". Many of his commissions came from sea captains, and Jacobsen was chosen both for the accuracy of his work and his low fee. More

William Howard Yorke,  Canada, 1847-1921 Liverpool, England
THE STARKING, c. 1892
Oil on canvas
21 by 31 inches, (53.3 by 78.7 cm)
Private Collection

William Howard Yorke (1847 - 1921) was a Liverpool ship portraitist working during the 19th and early 20th century.  The first recorded painting by Yorke is of the "Benares" and is dated 1858.  Little is known of Yorke's training, but it must be assumed that it was quite extensive as Yorke did become an accomplished and highly sought after artist.

Denys Brook-Hart, in his book British 19th Century Marine Painting pays tribute to Yorke's talent when he states that: 

[Yorke] paid great attention to his rendering of sea and sky as well as the
accurate detailing of the ship.

It was this rare ability that produced many commissions for Yorke.

Works by Yorke are in several Museum collections including the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London; Liverpool Museum; Manx Museum, Isle of Man; Mystic Seaport, Conn.; Mariners Museum, Newport News; Peabody Museum of Salem, Mass. and the San Francisco Maritime Museum. More William Howard Yorke

Abraham Hulk, 1813 - 1897
A FRESHENING BREEZE
Oil on panel
8 1/4 by 12 in.; 21 by 30.5 cm
Private Collection

Abraham Hulk Senior (1 May 1813 in London - 23 March 1897 in Zevenaar) was an Anglo Dutch painter, drawer and lithograph. Abraham became one of the well known marine painters of his time in the 19th century and with that the patriarch of a whole family of Anglo Dutch painters. He studied first to paint portraits under the portrait painter, Jean Augustin Daiwaille (1786–1850) and after that at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam.

From 1833 to 1834 he traveled in America to New York and Boston where he exhibited in Boston. In 1834 he returned to the Netherlands where he first lived in Amsterdam and from 1834 to 1896 in The Hague and Leeuwarden. In the meantime from 1855 to 1856 first in Enkhuizen and afterwards in Oosterbeek and Haarlem, but returned for good in 1870 to England, where he lived till his death in 1897. Although most literature states that he died in London, he actually died on a short visit in Zevenaar in the Netherlands. He became well known because he seemed to have the ability to paint the sea and its ships in such a different way for which he became one of the great marine painters. Some of his portraits have survived. His work was exhibited in the Royal Academy in London from 1876 to 1890 where he entered three paintings of which two were Dutch seascapes. He also exhibited at the Suffolk Street Galleries in London and in Leeuwarden and The Hague in the Netherlands from 1843 to 1868. More Abraham Hulk Senior

Wilhelm Victor Bille, 1864 - 1908
SHIPPING AT COPENHAGEN
Oil on canvas
39 by 54 in.; 99 by 137.2 cm.
Private Collection

Vilhelm Victor Bille ( 12. september 1864 in Copenhagen - 28. February 1908 ibid) was a Danish marine painter .

He was the son of the marine painter Carl Bille and father of painter Willy Bille . Bille was a student of the danger and visited a short time the Art Academy . More Vilhelm Victor Bille

Pieter Mulier the Elder, HAARLEM CIRCA 1590/1615 - 1670
FISHING AND ROWING BOATS AMONG CHOPPY WATERS
oil on panel, unframed
19 3/4  by 28 1/2  in.; 50.2 by 72.5 cm.
Private Collection

Pieter Mulier the Elder  (ca.1610, Haarlem – 1659, Haarlem), a Dutch Golden Age painter. from Haarlem was a student of Simon de Vlieger. He was influenced by Jan Porcellis and Jan van Goyen and was a member of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke from 1638. His works were mostly of seascapes with rough waters and sailing vessels. His son Pieter Mulier the Younger was a student of his. More Pieter Mulier the Elder

Paul Signac, 1863 - 1935
SAINT-TROPEZ, TARTANES AU PORT, c. 1900
Watercolour and pencil on paper
12.3 by 17.4cm., 4 7/8 by 6 7/8 in.
Private Collection

A Tartane or tartan was a small ship used both as a fishing ship and for coastal trading in the Mediterranean. They were in use for over 300 years until the late 19th century. A tartane had a single mast on which was rigged a large lateen sail, and with a bowsprit and fore-sail. When the wind was aft a square sail was generally hoisted like a cross jack. More Tartane

Paul Signac, (born Nov. 11, 1863, Paris, France—died Aug. 15, 1935, Paris) French painter who, with Georges Seurat, developed the technique called pointillism.
When he was 18, Signac gave up the study of architecture for painting and, through Armand Guillaumin, became a convert to the colouristic principles of Impressionism. In 1884 Signac helped found the Salon des Indépendants. There he met Seurat, whom he initiated into the broken-colour technique of Impressionism. The two went on to develop the method they called pointillism, which became the basis of Neo-Impressionism. They continued to apply pigment in minute dabs of pure colour, as had the Impressionists, but they adopted an exact, almost scientific system of applying the dots, instead of the somewhat intuitive application of the earlier masters. In watercolours Signac used the principle in a much freer manner. After 1886 he took part regularly in the annual Salon des Indépendants, to which he sent landscapes, seascapes, and decorative panels. Being a sailor, Signac traveled widely along the European coast, painting the landscapes he encountered. In his later years he painted scenes of Paris, Viviers, and other French cities.
Signac produced much critical writing and was the author of From Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism (1899) and Jongkind (1927). The former book is an exposition of pointillism, while the latter is an insightful treatise on watercolour painting. More

Vittorio d'Auria, (1872-1939)
V. D'AURIA, c. 1920
Oil on canvas
23" x 47"
Private Collection

Gerrit Albertus Beneker, 1882 - 1934
Riding the Tide, Provincetown, c. 1925
Oil on canvas
24 by 20 inches, (61 by 50.8 cm)
Private Collection

Gerrit Albertus Beneker (January 26, 1882 – October 23, 1934) was an American painter and illustrator best known for his paintings of industrial scenes and for his poster work in World War I. Beneker was born on January 26, 1882 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He first studied at the Chicago Art Institute; later he transferred to the Art Students League in New York. 

After working as an illustrator in New York, he became a student of Charles Webster Hawthorne in 1912 at the Cape Cod School of Art.

In July 1918, Beneker was hired, under the title of "Expert Aid, Navy Department", to create posters and illustrations for the war effort. It was in this period that he painted his most familiar work, "Sure We'll Finish the Job", which sold over three million copies. Later he spent four years painting workers of the Hydraulic Pressed Steel Company in Cleveland, Ohio as part of a labor-management relations improvement project; similar projects were carried out at the General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York and at the Rohm and Haas plant in Philadelphia.

Beneker was one of the founders of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.[9] His papers are held by the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution. More Gerrit Albertus Beneker


Carlton Alfred Smith, 1853 - 1946
GOOD LUCK!
Oil on canvas
40 1/8  by 34 1/8  in.; 112 by 86.5 cm.
Private Collection

Carlton Alfred Smith, 1853 - 1946, was a British watercolourist, oil painter and genre artist who often made images of cottage interiors showing domestic life and figures in cottage interiors in a romantic manner towards the end of the nineteenth century. Smith studied at the Slade School of Art. He became one of the most technically accomplished watercolorists of the late Victorian period. With Charles Edward Wilson (fl. 1890-1930) he moved from London to join the artistic community founded by Myles Birket Foster Allingham (1848-1926) in the towns or villages surrounding Witley in Surrey. Smith began his career as a lithographer before the start of his better-known interior domestic views that are marked with strong sunshine . He exhibited mostly at Suffolk Street, London, but also at the New Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of British Artists from 1879 onward. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Art. More Carlton Alfred Smith

John Whorf, 1903 - 1959
White Boats in the Sun/Boys Fishing, No. 15
Watercolor on paper
15 by 22 1/2 inches, (38 by 57 cm)
Private Collection

John Whorf, 1903 - 1959, was a prolific American painter. Born and raised in Winthrop, Massachusetts, Whorf began his artistic education with informal studies with his father, Harry C. Whorf, a graphic designer. John’s mother, took an active interest in the development of their children’s creative pursuits. Whorf began his formal training in the Boston atelier of Sherman Kidd and at the Museum School, where he studied drawing with Philip Leslie Hall and painting with William James. 

Whorf spent summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which proved to have a significant influence on the development of his style. In 1919, Whorf traveled to France, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, at which point he began to shift his focus away from oil painting and almost exclusively to watercolors. 

In the 30's, Whorf had permanently settled in Provincetown. Whorf enjoyed depicting a side of the summer resort town that vacationers seldom experienced, finding poetry in Cape Cod’s off-season beauty. 

His paintings may be found in numerous prestigious museum collections, among them the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York and The Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois, as well as in the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy and the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. More John Whorf

Anthony Thieme, 1888 - 1954
Scavengers of the Sea
Oil on canvas
30 by 36 inches, (76.2 by 91.4 cm)
Private Collection

Anthony Thieme (20 February 1888 – 6 December 1954) was a landscape and marine painter and a major figure of the Rockport (MA) School of American regional art.

Born in Rotterdam on 20 February 1888, Thieme studied at the Academie of Fine Arts in Rotterdam for two years and then, briefly, at the Royal Academy, the Hague. He traveled widely in Europe, frequently finding work as a stage designer.

Thieme traveled to the United States at the age of 22. He quickly found work as a stage designer at the Century Theater in New York, designing sets for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. When the commission ended, he traveled to South America, primarily Brazil and Argentina. Stage work again provided his livelihood. A return to Europe followed with further work in England, France, and Italy.

Returning to the United States with a contract for additional stage work, Thieme found himself in Boston. He discontinued work on the stage in 1928 and from then on made his living with the sales of his paintings and etchings. He established the Thieme School of Art. He exhibited his work frequently at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York.

Thieme committed suicide on 6 December 1954 in Greenwich, CT. The circumstances of his death are not fully understood. There have been stories of deep depression or major illness, but no definitive rationale for his suicide has emerged.

Anthony Thieme was a full member of the American Watercolor Society, Art Alliance of America, the Salmagundi Club, the Boston Art Club, North Shore Art Association, Rockport Art Association, New York Water Color Club, Art Alliance of Philadelphia and the National Arts Club. More Anthony Thieme









Acknowledgement: Sotheby's,  and others

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others

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14 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #23

Frederick Tudgay, John Tudgay
Battle of Heligoland, c. 1864
Oil on canvas
35-1/2 x 58-3/4 in. (90.1 x 149.2 cm.)
Private Collection

The Battle of Heligoland (or Helgoland) was fought on 9 May 1864, during the Second War of Schleswig between the navy of Denmark and the navy of Austria. The latter's ally, Prussia, sent support vessels but they played no part due to their arrival after the battle, which took place south of the then-British North Sea island of Heligoland where the previous 1849 sea battle had occurred.

When the Danish forces had caused the flagship of the Austrian commander, Freiherr von Tegetthoff, to catch fire, he withdrew his squadron to neutral waters around Heligoland. It was the last significant naval battle fought by squadrons of wooden ships and also the last one involving Denmark.

Although the battle ended with a tactical victory for Denmark (although the Austrians say it was a draw), it had no impact on the outcome of the war. A general armistice came into effect on 12 May, and Denmark had lost the war. More The Battle of Heligoland 

John Tudgay (fl.1836-1865) The prestigious tudgay family of marine artists produced an impressive body of ship portraiture, working often in collaboration with one and another while taking singular commissions as well. Frederick is known to have been the youngest, born in 1841. Their common talent for portraying detail and draftsman-like technique drew the attention of the English maritime community and many Americans who arrived in her ports.

Frederick Tudgay, John Tudgay
Battle of Heligoland, c. 1864
Detail

Frederick Tudgay worked as a painter of ship interiors for the Green shipyard in Blackwall, giving him access to study first hand ship design and construction techniques. Besides his noted accuracy, his works are appealing for the strong artistic merit seen in his treatment of sea, sky and background elements.
Working in London during the last half of the 19th century, the Tudgays painted almost exclusively on direct commission from owners and captains, producing accurate ship portraits known for their fidelity to vessel design. Today, their works are considered important examples of British marine painting, enthusiastically sought after by knowledgeable collectors the world over. More the Tudgays

Josef Carl Püttner, (1821–1881)
The sea battle at Helgoland, c.  1864 
(the burning Austrian frigate Schwarzenberg, behind the frigate Radetzky)
Oil on cardboard
38.5 x 26.5 cm
Private Collection

Josef Carl Berthold Püttner (born July 26, 1821 in plan, Bohemia; † July 29, 1881 in Vienna) was a German-Austrian landscape and marine painter.

Püttner worked in Vienna, from 1869 in Bad Vöslau. In the years 1846-47 he went on study trips to Rome and the Netherlands. A stay in Iceland is also demonstrated as Another mission in the years 1852 and 1853 to North and South America, among others aboard sailing ships of the German shipping JC Godeffroy & Sohn, which he was granted free passage .The artist turned of mainly marine painting and turned off the 1842 regular on the exhibitions of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Since 1861 Püttner was a member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus. More Josef Carl Berthold Püttner

Montague Dawson RMSA, FRSA (1890–1973) 
Up Channel - The Red Jacket
Oil on canvas
22 x 30 in. (55.8 x 76.2 cm.)
Private Collection

Red Jacket was a clipper ship, one of the largest and fastest ever built. She was also the first ship of the White Star Line company. She was named after Sagoyewatha, a famous Seneca Indian chief, called "Red Jacket" by settlers. She was designed by Samuel Hartt Pook, built by George Thomas in Rockland, Maine, and launched in 1853, the last ship to be launched from this yard.

Like many other fast clippers it is claimed that she is an extreme clipper, but this is technically incorrect. Extreme clippers were some of the clippers built in the period 1850 to 1852 only, and had at least a 40" dead rise at half floor. Being known as an extreme clipper was to be known as fast, and it became popular to call all fast clippers "extreme". More Red Jacket 

Montague Dawson RMSA, FRSA (1890–1973) was a British painter who was renowned as a maritime artist. His most famous paintings depict sailing ships, usually clippers or warships of the 18th and 19th centuries. Montague was the son of a keen yachtsman and the grandson of the marine painter Henry Dawson (1811–1878), born in Chiswick, London. Much of his childhood was spent on Southampton Water where he was able to indulge his interest in the study of ships. For a brief period around 1910 Dawson worked for a commercial art studio in Bedford Row, London, but with the outbreak of the First World War he joined the Royal Navy. Whilst serving with the Navy in Falmouth he met Charles Napier Hemy (1841–1917), who considerably influenced his work. In 1924 Dawson was the official artist for an Expedition to the South Seas by the steam yacht St.George. During the expedition he provided illustrated reports to the Graphic magazine.

After the War, Dawson established himself as a professional marine artist, concentrating on historical subjects and portraits of deep-water sailing ships. During the Second World War, he was employed as a war artist. Dawson exhibited regularly at the Royal Society of Marine Artists, of which he became a member, from 1946 to 1964, and occasionally at the Royal Academy between 1917 and 1936. By the 1930s he was considered one of the greatest living marine artists, whose patrons included two American Presidents, Dwight D Eisenhower and Lyndon B Johnson, as well as the British Royal Family. Also in the 1930s, he moved to Milford-Upon-Sea in Hampshire, living there for many years. Dawson is noted for the strict accuracy in the nautical detail of his paintings which often sell for six figures.

The work of Montague Dawson is represented in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth. More on Montague Dawson

Frank Vining Smith, (1879-1967)
American Clipper
Oil on masonite
19-1/2 x 27-1/2 in. (49.5 x 69.8 cm.)
Private Collection

Born in Whitman, Massachusetts in 1879, Frank Vining Smith summered on Cape Cod and made Hingham, Massachusetts his home. Unable to enter the Navy, he focused on painting—combining it with his love of all things nautical. Smith enrolled at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  He then studied at the Central Ontario School of Art in Canada and, finally, at the Art Students League in New York City.  Smith began working as an illustrator for the Boston Herald at the age of twenty-three and also executed many illustrations and paintings for the Boston Journal, Outdoors, Field & Stream, and Yachting. His illustrations came to define a generation enjoying the pastime of “leisure and the great outdoors.”

At the age of 47, Smith was able to paint full-time.  World War II brought a resurgence of patriotism and, for Smith, a broadening list of patrons and commissions. His clients included such captains of industry as Josiah K. Lilly Jr. (of Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals fame), fine art connoisseur and museum founder Julian de Cordova and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. More Frank Vining Smith

Frank Vining Smith, (1879-1967)
Packet Ship ‘Dreadnought,’ c. 1946
Oil on board
24 x 30 in.
Private Collection.

The Dreadnought was built for the fast cargo and passenger service between New York and Liverpool. She operated in the Red Cross Line under the command of Captain Samuel Samuels and for the first two years made twenty six passages between New York and Liverpool.

"With an ample supply of timber, Americans had excelled in constructing wooden sailing ships. Their clipper ships of the 1850s were the fastest sailing vessels afloat. American shipbuilders were on the cutting edge of wood and sail, but not of iron and steam.." (American History Online) More The Dreadnought 

John Steven Dews
Cutty Sark Entering The Thames River
Oil on canvas
24 x 36 in. (60.9 x 91.4 cm.)
Private Collection

Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built on the Clyde in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion.

The opening of the Suez Canal (also in 1869) meant that steam ships now enjoyed a much shorter route to China, so Cutty Sark spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia, where she held the record time to Britain for ten years. Improvements in steam technology meant that gradually steamships also came to dominate the longer sailing route to Australia and the ship was sold to the Portuguese company Ferreira and Co. in 1895, and renamed Ferreira. She continued as a cargo ship until purchased by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman in 1922, who used her as a training ship operating from Falmouth, Cornwall. After his death, Cutty Sark was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College, Greenhithe in 1938 where she became an auxiliary cadet training ship alongside HMS Worcester. By 1954 she had ceased to be useful as a cadet ship and was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London on public display.

Cutty Sark is listed by National Historic Ships as part of the National Historic Fleet (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building). She is one of only three remaining original composite construction (wooden hull on an iron frame) clipper ships from the nineteenth century in part or whole, the others being the City of Adelaide, which arrived in Port Adelaide, South Australia on 3 February 2014 for preservation, and the beached skeleton of Ambassador of 1869 near Punta Arenas, Chile. More Cutty Sark

John Steven Dews
Cutty Sark Entering The Thames River
Detail

John Steven Dews (British, b. 1949) was born in Beverley, North Humberside in 1949. He has risen from a boy who failed his art 'A' level to become Britain's most sought-after living marine artist. His grandfather was then Assistant Dockmaster at the Hull Docks. He was brought up on a tradition of the sea, the family being able to trace their nautical connections back to the seventeenth century.

Steven, who had been turned down by various naval institutions, settled for Hull Regional College of Art where he graduated in Technical Graphics and Illustration. He moved back to his parents and borrowed a friend’s derelict farmhouse on the northern banks of the Humber. Here, where the light, the skies and the atmosphere were perfect, Steven spent hours painting in a makeshift studio.

He studied photographs, reference books, model ships and architectural drawings, especially noting the sea and sky in their various moods and produced hundreds of pencil sketches graduating to accurate drawings incorporating measurements.

In 1976, his first exhibition was mounted. Virtually the whole body of work was sold on the first night and seventeen commissions were received. The following year he had an exhibition in San Francisco which sold out to large critical acclaim and heralded a secure future as an artist. As a consequence of the number of commissions gained from this exhibition, much of Steven’s work from this period was to cross the Atlantic.

His pictures also formed a major one-man touring fund-raising exhibition opened by HRH The Prince of Wales in support of the excavation of the site of the ”Mary Rose”, Henry VIII’s warship. The exhibition was scheduled for twenty-four destinations around the UK including the National Maritime Museum, and closed at Amoco’s headquarters in Chicago.

As Steven’s reputation blossomed, so did his lifelong affair with the sea. He was able to buy his first yacht and, when not painting the sea, was out sailing on it. In his studio he concentrated on the meticulous detail essential for the accuracy and realism of his painting. Always demanding perfection from his work, he developed techniques to help him. 

He lives and loves the subject he paints, with much of his spare time spent sailing. 'How is it possible to express the air and sea and sky without having experienced the elements, knowing how a ship works, pulled the ropes ?' he asks. More John Steven Dews

Alexander C. Stuart, (1831–1898)
The battle between the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia (Merrimac)
Oil on canvas
14 x 22 in. (35.5 x 55.8 cm.)
Private Collection

The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack (or Virginia) or the Battle of Ironclads, was the most noted and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies. It was fought over two days, March 8–9, 1862. The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederacy to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginia's largest cities, Norfolk and Richmond, from international trade.

The major significance of the battle is that it was the first meeting in combat of ironclad warships, i.e., the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. The Confederate fleet consisted of the ironclad ram Virginia and several supporting vessels. On that day, Virginia was able to destroy two ships of the Federal flotilla, USS Congress and USS Cumberland, and was about to attack a third, USS Minnesota, which had run aground. However, the action was halted by darkness and falling tide, so Virginia retired.

Determined to complete the destruction of the Minnesota, the CSS Virginia returned the ship to the fray the next morning. During the night, however, the ironclad Monitor had arrived and had taken a position to defend Minnesota. The two ironclads fought for about three hours, with neither being able to inflict significant damage on the other. The duel ended indecisively,. The ships did not fight again, and the blockade remained in place.[4]

The battle received worldwide attention, and it had immediate effects on navies around the world. The preeminent naval powers, Great Britain and France, halted further construction of wooden-hulled ships, and others followed suit. More The Battle of Hampton Roads

Alexander C. Stuart, (1831–1898)
The battle between the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia (Merrimac)
Detail

Alexander C. Stuart (1831–1898) was a British-born American painter, specializing in naval scenes. He grew up in Glasgow, served in the British Army, and immigrated to US around 1861. Since then lived and worked on the East Coast of the United States. In the US he served in the Marines and the Navy (Union) until 1866; since then he worked as an artist and illustrator.

In the U.S., Stuart worked primarily on navy bases and shipyards near the Delaware River. He also worked quite a bit in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. According to an account of his life written by Stuart, he had studied engineering and medicine before enlisting in the English Army in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny.

After resigning from the Navy, Stuart began working as an artist and illustrator for the merchant shipbuilding companies. During this period Stuart produced numerous illustrations of early iron steamships built by these firms. 

In 1882, Stuart went to New York, seeking to earn a name and living as an artist in the city. This move did not prove successful. A year later, he moved to Florida. There, he first settled in St. Augustine and then moved to Eustis where he worked as a physician for nearly a year. In 1886, Stuart moved again to the Wilmington area and stayed there until 1895. From there he moved with his daughter to Camden, New Jersey. His financial condition in the final years of his life saw a decline, but he painted marine subjects until his death in 1898. More Alexander C. Stuart 

George Bunn,  (fl.1885 - 1898) 
Towing out, 1890
Oil on canvas
12 x 18 in. (30.4 x 45.7 cm.)
Private Collection

George Bunn (fl.1885 - 1898) was an American artist known for marine painting and commercial art, he was born in Brussels and moved by his family to Utica, New York, remained primarily in New York State until 1885, when he returned to Brussels.  At age 15, he enlisted in a New York cavalry as a bugler to serve in the Civil War, and received a head wound that affected the remainder of his life.  After leaving the Army, he served on the ship, Pensacola, in the Pacific Ocean, and then returned to Utica where he set up a sign painting business.  In his leisure he did marine painting, which he sold locally. More George Bunn

George Bunn, (fl.1885 - 1898)
Towing out, 1890
Detail

Joseph Walter, (1783–1856)
The H.M.S. Britannia with other shipping off Swansea
Oil on canvas
29 x 38 in. (73.6 x 96.5 cm.)
Private Collection

Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. It is the second largest city in Wales after Cardiff.

HMS Prince of Wales was one of six 121-gun screw-propelled first-rate three-decker line-of-battle ships of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 25 January 1860. In 1869 she was renamed HMS Britannia and under that name served at Dartmouth as a cadet training ship until 1905.

The Prince of Wales was originally a 3,186 ton 120 gun Queen-class sailing line-of-battle ship. In 1849.. Prince of Wales was reordered to complete as a 121 gun screw line-of-battle ship on 9 April 1856.  Prince of Wales was completed towards the end of the unarmoured phase of a naval arms race between Britain and France. In 1860 the Royal Navy had more wooden steam line-of-battle ships than it needed to man in peacetime.

In 1867, the Prince of Wales's engines were removed so they could be installed in the ironclad Repulse. In 1869 she was renamed Britannia and began service as a cadet training ship at Dartmouth, replacing the previous Britannia in that role.  More H.M.S. Britannia

Joseph Walter (1783–1856) was an English marine painter in oils and watercolour, working at Bristol and Portishead. He gained notice for his portrayals of Brunel's steamships Great Western and Great Britain.

Walter was born in Bristol and died there, but was living in Portishead at the time that he exhibited his first known work, This was at the Bristol Institution in 1832, in the first exhibition of the Bristol Society of Artists. He is not known to have been associated with the Bristol School of artists in the 1820s. However surviving sketches suggest that he did take part in the revival of the school's sketching meetings in the 1830s. 

Walter's subjects included shipping at Bristol, Southampton, Malta and Saint Lucia. He also portrayed Dutch vessels in the style of the Dutch artists Van de Velde and son. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1837, and also at the Society of British Artists. More Joseph Walter 

Joseph Walter
The H.M.S. Britannia with other shipping off Swansea
Detail

Thomas Luny, 
The destruction of the French fleet at Santa Domingo, c. 1815
Oil on canvas
24 x 34 in. (60.9 x 86.3 cm.)
Private Collection

The Battle of San Domingo was a naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars fought on 6 February 1806 between squadrons of French and British ships of the line off in the Caribbean. The French squadron, under Vice-Admiral Corentin Urbain Leissègues in the 120-gun Impérial, had sailed from Brest in December 1805, one of two squadrons intending to raid British trade routes as part of the Atlantic campaign of 1806.

After winter storms near the Azores damaged and scattered his squadron, Leissègues regrouped and repaired his ships at the city of Santo Domingo, where a British squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth discovered them on 6 February 1806.

By the time French lookouts at Santo Domingo had spotted Duckworth approaching from the southeast, it was too late for Leissègues to escape. Sailing with the wind westwards along the coast, Leissègues formed a line of battle to meet the approaching British squadron, which had split into two divisions. Duckworth's lead ships remained in a tight formation and successfully engaged the head of the French line, targeting the flagship Impérial. Severely damaged and surrounded, Leissègues drove Impérial ashore to avoid capture. The remaining French ship of the line, Diomède, followed him. Although most of the crew of these ships scrambled ashore, British boarding parties captured both vessels and set them on fire. The only French ships to escape the battle were three smaller warships, which Duckworth's squadron had ignored; they eventually returned to France.

The battle of San Domingo was the last fleet engagement of the war between French and British capital ships in open water. The Royal Navy's dominance off every French port made the risks involved in putting to sea insurmountable. The only subsequent breakout attempt, by the Brest fleet in 1809, ended with the defeat of the French fleet close to its own anchorage at the Battle of the Basque Roads. More The Battle of San Domingo 

Thomas Luny (1759–1837), born in Cornwall, an English artist and painter, mostly of seascapes and other marine-based works. At the age of eleven, Luny left Cornwall to live in London. There he became the apprentice of Francis Holman. Luny remained until 1780 in Holman's London studio.

In September 1777, Luny journied  to France. During this particular expedition, Luny almost certainly strayed from France itself; his first exhibited picture in London, seen at the Society of Artists that same year.

Thomas Luny, (1759–1837)
The destruction of the French fleet at Santa Domingo, c. 1815
Detail

Luny left Holman's studio in 1780. It was around this time that Luny was frequently exhibiting at the Royal Academy, in a total of twenty-nine exhibitions between 1780 and 1802. In Leadenhall Street, Luny became acquainted with a "Mr. Merle", a dealer and framer of paintings who promoted Luny's paintings for over twenty years, to great success. Luny also found a wealthy source of business in Leadenhall Street, where the British East India Company had their headquarters; their officers commissioned many paintings and portraits from Luny. Luny was occasionally invited as a guest on the Company's ships on special occasions and voyages.

Several years later, in 1807, Luny decided to move again, this time to Teignmouth in Devon. There he received a number of commissions. Luny was by that time suffering with arthritis in both of his hands. This had no obvious impact on the quality or pace of his artistic work. In fact, of his lifetime oeuvre of over 3,000 works, over 2,200 were produced between 1807 and his death.[2] He died on 30 September 1837. More Thomas Luny

T. A. Jameson, (British, born 1840)
Men-o'-War in an Estuary
Oil on canvas
45 x 50cm (17 11/16 x 19 11/16in)
Private Collection

The man-of-war was a British Royal Navy expression for a powerful warship or frigate from the 16th to the 19th century. The term often refers to a ship armed with cannon and propelled primarily by sails, as opposed to a galley which is propelled primarily by oars. The man-of-war was developed in England in the early 16th century from earlier roundships with the addition of a second mast to form the carrack ( a three- or four-masted ocean-going sailing ship). The 16th century saw the carrack evolve into the galleon and then the ship of the line. More The man-of-war



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