19th Century Chinese school

View of the Hongs, Canton

Circa 1850

Artist Edward Cucuel and his wife Clara Lotte von Marcard spent their first two decades together in Germany, mostly in a villa on Lake Ammersee in Holzhausen near Munich. It is the works created in this period, mainly outdoor scenes of young women in fashionable attire of the day, that are most collected and appreciated among his works. It’s easy to see why- they capture an elegance and sense of calm and easy leisure- of long days in gardens or by the water.  This is one of those captured moments with a well-dressed woman watching the sailing yacht...

One of the most exciting races between American clipper ships took place between October, 1852 and January, 1853. The vessels involved were the crack clippers FLYING FISH, JOHN GILPIN and WILD PIGEON. Departing New York, each a few days apart, the three ships met up off Cape Horn and proceeded, often in sight of one another, to fly up the west coast to San Francisco. The JOHN GILPIN gambled by heading farther west into the pacific where a strong northerly got her to San Francisco first. FLYING FISH and WILD PIGEON remained in sight of one another for most of the voyage in their dash up the coast. FLYING FISH arrived a day after GILPIN, but having left New York three days behind her adversary, was declared the winner. This view shows an excellent starboard view of the great FLYING FISH on her entry into San Francisco Bay. The water has superb light and reflection while the Marin headlands show as her backdrop, with the ever-present misty atmosphere of this important California port. A well captured moment of one of the fastest and most powerful 19th century great sailing ships created. Sight Size: 18 x 34 inches Vallejo Gallery...

Pluie a Venice is painted in Hambourg's preferred palette of muted blue-green, grey, and gold with splashes of ruby red, deep blue, and emerald green. The soft colors work well for beach scenes and rainy days such as the ones portrayed in this painting. The impressionistic scene shows multiple pedestrians strolling down the boardwalk, shielding themselves from the rain with colorful umbrellas that provide pops of color and balance the overcast sky. The background contains a three-masted ship and Piazza San Marco's famous bell tower and Basilica. Hambourg uses the minimum number of brushstrokes necessary to portray ships, seagulls, buildings and people as well as reflections on the glistening sidewalk. The brushstrokes in the sky have an interesting texture that is controlled yet carefree and there is heavy impasto throughout. His portrayal is both realistic and romanticized. Hambourg was clearly influenced by the great Impressionist artists of earlier generations, perhaps none more than the one with a direct connection to his family. Hambourg's wife, Nicole Rachet, was born into a family with a large collection of works by Impressionist master Eugene Boudin. Rachet's grandfather was a contemporary and friend of Boudin's, and a collector of his work. In their later years, Hambourg and Rachet donated over 300 canvases by Boudin and other artists to the Eugene Boudin Museum in Honfleur, France. It was such a large and important gift that the collection bears...

Three ships - an American Three-Masted Steam Schooner, a British Sailing Royal Navy Frigate and a British Sidewheel Steam Naval Frigate - are all challenged by a tempestuous sea in this English Channel crossing scene. The British sailors work in unison to reef and employ sails on both frigates, running with the heavy, wind-driven sea towards Ramsgate, while the fore-and-aft rigged steam schooner burns her boilers while keeping her sails up to help stabilize the pitch and roll of the American ship, headed to continental Europe. Buttersworth has expertly detailed the actions of the men, their ships and the dramatic setting. Many other ships lay at anchorages off the Kent coast, showing from the Cliffs of Dover to the fortifications of Ramsgate. This early visit by an American sail/steam vessel to England is remarkable. The first such transatlantic voyage happened in 1819, by the historic S.S. SAVANNAH, and it’d take almost 20 years to be repeated. Among the first names of American Steam Schooners to make British ports, ASP, HARRIET, and BRUTUS are among those recorded. MIDAS, a steam schooner owned by Robert Bennett Forbes, was the first American steamship to China, in 1844. Showing a varied and illuminated sky that is recognized as a signature of Buttersworth’s artistic talent in his paintings, the stormy clouds are split by a sunburst opening, reflective light creating an emotional, positive hope for the subjects. The English Channel is at its narrowest width in this stretch off Kent, home to the Cinque Ports regulating trade and naval protection in the English Southeast for centuries. Buttersworth is soon bound for life in America, making this one of his last, and in our opinion, best British scenes painted in England. Sight Size: 18 x 24 Inches Signed LR: J.E. Buttersworth Provenance: India House...

This luminous work depicts the American merchant brigantine E. MILLER. The sun sits low behind the ship, illuminating the sky with colors of yellow and deep rose tones. The sun has just touched the sea at the ship's bow and around her stern, creating a halo of light in the small waves. The E. Miller is in full sail with sailors active on her deck, with her brightly colored name pennant snapping in the wind alongside the American flag and company flag. Though unsigned, this is clearly the work of artist Elisha Tyler Baker. Baker only signed about a third of his paintings, so this is not unusual for the artist. The rendering of the vessel to his touch in the sea and sky all give very clear clues that the work is his. Though little information remains about her voyages we know the ship E. MILLER was built in Virginia by the Surry Company in 1856 and had a weight of 132 tons. Sailing out of Richmond she was also known to frequent the port of Baltimore. From Richmond she would have carried out agricultural goods, lumber, and iron, while importing manufactured goods and guano to fertilize Virginia's tobacco fields. Given that she was built before the Civil War and was ported in Richmond throughout the war, it's likely the E. MILLER was involved in moving goods to supply Confederate forces. Sight Size: 23 3/4 x 32 Inches Vallejo Gallery features the finest in marine and maritime antiques...

The oldest European buildings in China are along the once curved crescent shore of the Praya Grande, where the Portuguese explorers established and fortified their trading foothold with an entire continent. When they arrived in 1553, this small fishing village overlooked by a temple to an ocean goddess immediately became an important cultural center of the world and the stage for initial interactions between the East and West. Ever since, this port has played a role in the cosmopolitan course of world trade. (The harbor is extensively filled in and built upon today.) In this view, more than 300 years after the Dutch established contact in the early 17th Century and western ships first sailed in the harbor, a British Sidewheel Steamer is in the port of Macao, surrounded by more than 20 Chinese vessels. The artist's perspective, looking northwest towards the Praya Grande's center, brings Praha Hill and its stone stairway in view, with the church on top. The inlaid stone walkway of the port city is full of human figures, one wearing a special red jacket while the rest wear blue or white. One westerner in a top hat at the stern post of the closest Chinese ship directs its crew outward bound...

Date: 1935 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 23.00" x 33.50" Signature: Signed Lower Right Illustration for magazine story, 1935. Original magazine story illustration...

Medium: Oil and Pencil on Canvas Date: 1975 Signature: Signed Lower Right Dimensions: 18.00" x 26.00"

Medium: Oil on Canvas Sight Size 53.00" x 136.00", Framed 66.00" x 149.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left Interwoven Stocking Company Advertisement Reproduced on gift boxes, Advertisement appeared in Saturday Evening Post, December 8, 1928, pg.2 The long lost NC Wyeth...

Original painting of 1637 owned by the Uffizzi Museum in Florence, Italy. This is a fully restored copy.

Signature: Signed Lower Right

Signature: Signed Lower Right