Harbour Court, New York Yacht Club, Newport Rhode Island

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Christopher Blossom
Harbour Court, New York Yacht Club, Newport Rhode Island

About the Item

On Friday, June 10, 1988, 1,500 New York Yacht Club members and guests attended the first commissioning of Harbour Court, the club's first permanent waterfront facility. Standing on eight acres overlooking Brenton's Cove, the Renaissance Norman-style mansion was completed in 1906 for the John Nicholas Brown family. John Nicholas Brown was commodore of the NYYC from 1952-54. The natural alliance between the New York Yacht Club and Newport, Rhode Island began three days after the club's founding on Friday, August 2, 1844, when a fleet of the founders' eight yachts got underway from the Battery bound for Newport on the first summer Cruise. Many summer Cruises – known as the Annual Cruise -- included a stop in Newport. Then beginning in 1930 the NYYC conducted the America's Cup in Newport -- first in J-Class yachts and then 12 Metres -- until losing it in 1983. John Nicholas Brown died in 1979 while aboard the Malagueña. After his wife Anne Brown's death in 1985, her children put the property on the market. Meanwhile, some members of the New York Yacht Club were thinking that the club could benefit from owning a waterfront property. John Nicholas Brown had on occasion mused that Harbour Court would make a fine yacht club. The NYYC purchased the property in 1987. Here Chris Blossom captures a moment of quiet solitude by a small pond on the beautifully landscaped property, during a Marine Artist's Weekend sponsored by the J. Russell Jinishian Gallery. Like a member of another famous American art family, the Wyeths, Christopher Blossom follows in a line of highly accomplished artists. Both his grandfather, Earl, and his father David, were celebrated commercial artists. Their influence in combination with Chris’ own unique approach to easel painting have led him to become regarded as one of the undisputed leaders of today’s generation of marine painters. After informal studies with his father, Chris attended the Parsons School of Design. At the same time he worked in the Industrial Design studio of Robert Bourke where he learned to accurately interpret blueprints of all kinds. By the time he finished, he was able to visualize an entire boat by using its plans alone as reference and he could draw a craft accurately from any angle, a skill possessed by very few. Born in 1956, Blossom has received a level of recognition that most artists need a lifetime to achieve. At the age of twenty, he was awarded a “Scholarship Gold Medal” by the Society of Illustrators. He went on to become a charter member and then President of the American Society of Marine Artists. Shortly thereafter, he was accepted into the exclusive Society of Historical Artists. He is the only marine artist to have been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Western Art, from whom he received a “Gold Medal” in 1991. Since then, he has received the coveted Robert Lougheed Award at the Prix de West Exhibition, selected by his fellow artists as the ‘Best in Show’, four times, also receiving the Prix de West Purchase Award in 2010; and the Frederic Remington Award for Artistic Distinction in Painting in 2015. He was one of only 20 artists nationwide selected by Forbes Magazine, and American Artist Magazine to paint the Forbes family ranch in Colorado and their chateau in Normandy, France for two special exhibitions in New York City. He is also one of the 29 elected members of the Plein Air Painters of America. In 2004, his paintings were part of the nationwide touring exhibition entitled FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA: A Reflection of America, which included forty-seven of America’s finest realist and impressionist Painters. Although practiced both in studio and plein-air painting, today he devotes the majority of his time to marine paintings, to which he brings to life a long passion and extensive experience cruising both the east and west coast under sail. In 1998-1999, Chris spent a year cruising the Caribbean with his family aboard their 30-foot sloop ARCADIA. The paintings from that trip became the subject of an article in Southwest Art Magazine. Other magazines which have featured his work include Sailing, Sea History, American History, Art of the West, Connecticut Magazine, Marine Art Quarterly and American Artist. Chris was also featured as the cover story of the popular magazine, The Saturday Evening Post in April, 2017. The U.S. Navy has called on him to document life aboard their own sailing vessels as part of the Naval Art Program. His painting of SSN 571, the USS Nautilus helped raise funds to found the Nautilus Museum in Groton, CT. Chris Blossom's passion for history and his unique ability to visualize in three dimensions has allowed him to recreate scenes from maritime history with a genuineness and feeling that is unequaled among his contemporaries. His distinctive painterly style, complex compositions, and subtle use of light are characteristics that have attracted collectors from all over the globe. It should come as no surprise that when other top Marine Artists are asked to identify artists they admire, Christopher Blossom is often the first name on their list. The nation's leading authority on contemporary marine art, J. Russell Jinishian says: “While clearly drawing on his predecessors, like all innovators, Chris has created a visual language that is uniquely his own. In his paintings one senses a deep, quiet, understated intelligence, not unlike the man himself. Everything has a purpose. No part of a scene, no stroke is frivolous. Nothing is done merely for show or bravado. Whether they are simple or complex, his compositions are lean and forceful.” His paintings have been exhibited at the Mystic Seaport Museum, the Gilcrease Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Colorado History Museum, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, the Chase Center on the Riverfront, the Newport Art Museum, the Cape Cod Museum of Fine Art, the Frye Art Museum, the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, the Connecticut River Museum, the Maine Maritime Museum, the Texas Maritime Museum, the Haggin Museum, the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, the Noyes Museum of Art, Spartanburg Art Museum, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, the Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts and Maynard Dixon Studio, and for over 20 years at the prestigious Artist of America Exhibition, now the Artists Forum International. Forty paintings, spanning 25 years of his painting, have also been published as a monograph on his work, Christopher Blossom Premier Marine Artist by the Greenwich Workshop. Limited edition prints of his unique work have been published nationwide by the Greenwich Workshop since 1979. In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious top prize at the Prix de West Art Exhibition, where he also received the coveted Robert Lougheed Award, selected by his fellow artists as the ‘Best in Show’ for an unprecedented four years. Every new generation of artists is challenged to retell old stories in a new way. For Blossom each painting becomes an opportunity to look at the world anew. Not satisfied to simply repeat old formulas, he brings something singular into every painting – whether it be an unusual viewpoint, dramatic composition, dynamic brushwork, or provocative color.

Creator:
Christopher Blossom (1956, American)
Dimensions:
Height: 9 in (22.86 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
Medium:
Oil
Movement & Style:
American Realist
Period:
2000-2009
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Stonington, CT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU94815412782