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)

North American Collection

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

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