Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 12

Adolphus Knell
19th Century English, Shipping at moonlight

Circa 1870

$3,950
£2,992.98
€3,428.22
CA$5,594.73
A$6,105.15
CHF 3,202.25
MX$74,149.06
NOK 39,997.90
SEK 37,800.01
DKK 25,586.94

About the Item

This evocative marine painting by Adolphus Knell, son of the distinguished marine artist William Adolphus Knell, demonstrates the family’s mastery of atmospheric seascapes. Here, a large sailing vessel dominates the composition, its rigging etched in silhouette against a glowing moonlit sky. Smaller craft cluster nearby, their hulls merging into the darkened waters, while the distant light on the horizon offers a faint yet poetic counterpoint to the central drama of ship and sea. Knell’s treatment of moonlight on water is particularly striking—the silvered path of light across the surface of the sea guides the eye into the composition and enhances the painting’s sense of depth and quiet grandeur. The restrained palette of greys, blues, and blacks is enlivened by this glowing light, producing a haunting mood that was much admired in Victorian marine painting. Adolphus Knell was part of a dynasty of painters celebrated for maritime subjects, and his works are sought after for their romantic intensity and atmospheric detail. This example, both intimate in scale and powerful in presence, reflects the continuing fascination with Britain’s seafaring heritage during the 19th century. Framed in an ornate gilt frame that complements its period character, this painting offers both collectors and admirers of maritime art a fine example of Knell’s ability to capture the quiet drama of ships at rest beneath the moon. Signed lower right Framed in a hand made English swept style frame
  • Creator:
    Adolphus Knell (1830 - 1900, British)
  • Creation Year:
    Circa 1870
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 14 in (35.56 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    This painting is in good original condition.
  • Gallery Location:
    Woodbury, CT
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU507316925842

More From This Seller

View All
19th century English Warship at sea with the Sun rising or Setting
By Adolphus Knell
Located in Woodbury, CT
Adolphus Knell 19th-century English Warship at sea Owning in a 19th-century English fishing boat captured at sea circa 1880 by Adolphus Knell, with the sun rising or setting, offer...
Category

1880s Victorian Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Victorian 19th century English sailing yacht off the English coast
By Adolphus Knell
Located in Woodbury, CT
English 19th century Victorian Sailing scene, with fishing vessels off of a landscape. Outstanding Victorian marine scene of a yacht at sail possible in the English Channel. Knell w...
Category

1860s Victorian Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Antique Victorian, Impressionist 19th century English oil, Fishings boat at Sea
By Adolphus Knell
Located in Woodbury, CT
Antique Victorian, Impressionist 19th century English oil, Fishings boat at Sea. Adolphus Knell was a superb painter of marine subjects during the middle of the 19th century. His w...
Category

1860s Victorian Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Antique Victorian, Impressionist 19th century English oil, Fishings boat at Sea
By Adolphus Knell
Located in Woodbury, CT
Antique Victorian, Impressionist 19th century English oil, Fishings boat at Sea. Adolphus Knell was a superb painter of marine subjects during the middle of the 19th century. His wor...
Category

1860s Victorian Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

19th century English Fishing boat at sea with Sun rise or Sunset
By Adolphus Knell
Located in Woodbury, CT
Adolphus Knell 19th-century English fishing boast at Sea. Owning in a 19th-century English fishing boat captured at sea circa 1880 by Adolphus Knell, with the sun rising or setting...
Category

1880s Victorian Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

19th Century English school, Shipping in rough seas
Located in Woodbury, CT
This dramatic seascape, painted in the mid-19th century, captures the timeless struggle between man, vessel, and the unforgiving sea. The composition centers on a distressed sailing ...
Category

1880s Victorian Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

19th Century seascape oil painting of shipping by moonlight on the Medway
By Hubert Thornley
Located in Nr Broadway, Worcestershire
Hubert Thornley British, (exh. 1858 -1898) Moonlight on The Medway Oil on canvas, signed, further inscribed in pencil to the stretcher verso Image size: 9.5 inches x 15.5 inches Size...
Category

19th Century Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Victorian 19th Century Marine Oil of Ship and Boats off the Coast in Stormy Seas
By William Webb
Located in ludlow, GB
Victorian Marine 19th Century Oil Painting on Canvas on stretchers, with Shipping off the Coast in a stiff breeze and stormy seas. Another fabulous maritime painting from William Web...
Category

19th Century Victorian Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

19th Century seascape oil painting of shipping by moonlight at Whitby
By Hubert Thornley
Located in Nr Broadway, Worcestershire
Hubert Thornley British, (exh. 1858 -1898) Moonlight Whitby Harbour, Low Tide Oil on canvas, signed, indistinctly inscribed in pencil to the stretcher verso Image size: 9.25 inches x 15.25 inches Size including frame: 16.25 inches x 22.25 inches An atmospheric moonlit painting...
Category

19th Century Victorian Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Victorian Marine Oil Painting Sunset with Shipping and Row Boats off the Coast
By Adolphus Knell
Located in ludlow, GB
Victorian Marine Oil Painting of Sunset Scene with Shipping and Row Boats returning to Shore at the end of the day. A beautiful small framed Oil on Panel that is framed in a handmad...
Category

19th Century Victorian Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Grand 19th Century English Marine Painting in Stunning Light
By John Wilson Ewbank
Located in London, GB
John Wilson Ewbank (1799 - 1847) Shipping in the Harbour, South Shields Oil on canvas 39.5 x 58 inches unframed 47.75 x 66.5 inches framed Provenance: Christie's October 2002; Lot 11. Fine Art Society; Private Collection This marvellous up to scale Ewbank is full of light and warmth and almost certainly his greatest work of the sort rarely - if ever - seen on the market. John W. Ewbank (4 May 1799–28 November 1847), was an English-born landscape and marine painter largely operational from Scotland. The Humber river is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. Life Ewbank was born at Darlington on 4 May 1799, the son of Michael Ewbank, an innkeeper. He was adopted as a child by a wealthy uncle who lived at Wycliffe, on the banks of the River Tees, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Intended for the Roman Catholic priesthood, he was sent to Ushaw College, from which he absconded. In 1813 Ewbank was apprenticed to Thomas Coulson, an ornamental painter in Newcastle. In around 1816 he moved with Coulson to Edinburgh, where he had some lessons with Alexander Nasmyth. He found work both as a painter and a teacher. He was nominated in 1830 one of the foundation members of the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1833 he is listed as living at 7 Union Street on the eastern fringe of the New Town in Edinburgh. Works His sketches from nature were especially admired, and a series of 51 drawings of Edinburgh by him were engraved by W. H. Lizars for James Browne's Picturesque Views of Edinburgh (1825). He also made a reputation with cabinet pictures of banks of rivers, coast scenes, and marine subjects. As an illustrator he illustrated some early editions of Scott's Waverley Novels and one edition of Gilbert White...
Category

19th Century Old Masters Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Sailing Among the Moonlight, Moody Seascape, Tonalism
Located in Grand Rapids, MI
European School, 19th Century " Sailing Among the Moonlight ", circa 1880s Oil on Board 16" x 24" Housed in a Period 4" Ornamented Frame Overall Size: 23 5/8" x 31 1/2" A wond...
Category

Late 19th Century Tonalist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board