William Edward Norton

On the Coast of Holland, Fishing Boat Ready for Sea

Circa 1890

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...

Blessed with natural artistic ability and finding encouragement from her family at an early age, Sally Swatland has traveled the proper paths to find herself in a unique place: the foremost American woman painting children at the seashore. With a romanticized nod to yesteryear, Swatland's characters are innocent and fair, in an array of matching springtime and summery apparel. Adept with brush and palette knife, she blends many artistic influences and styles into her own unique presentations. This painting features a fair-haired young girl dipping her feet in the shallow waters along a rocky shoreline. The sea behind is a brilliant blue with small white-capped waves rolling into shore. The brushwork alternates between smooth strokes in the child's form and dress and more impasto work and sharper edges on the rocks and in the more active parts of the sea. The overall effect is that of being at the sea and finding serenity in the contrast between the calm shore and the always moving ocean. The seas' eternal inspiration form a common backdrop to many of Swatland's artistic works. Born in Washington D.C., her family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut and often summered at Tod's Point, Long Island Sound. She would go on to become an art major at Mount Saint Vincent College, study under Robert Schulz in the Art Students League of New York, and come to be represented early by Alistair Stair in his New York and Florida galleries...

This attractive portrait features the five-masted schooner ELINOR H. at full sail in an active sea. The ship has crisp lines and a sharp sense of detail, likely because it was painte...

With a great view of the city of Naples off her bow and Mount Vesuvius off her stern there's no doubt where this Baltimore Clipper Brig is located. This very well executed portrait has great detail of the port and ship with great coloration throughout and great reflections of the ship on the water. The ship is shown in full sail with flags flying. The ship was owned and Captained by Griffith Jones, a Welshman born 1831. Port Madoc refers to the Welsh City of Porthmadog- it was spelled Portmadoc before 1974. Her sloped bow and stern along with her size are typical of a Baltimore Clipper but her masts are not as raked as often seen in ships of this design and she is square rigged, though there are historical paintings and drawings of other Baltimore Clippers built in this way. Most of what we know about the Brig EPHRATAH is due to the famous wreck of her sister ship FROLIC, though FROLIC was built much earlier. FROLIC is considered the most important wreck on the West Coast of the United States. Dr. Tom Layton of Stanford University connected the two ships in his research on FROLIC.  EPHRATAH was slightly larger than FROLIC at 230 tons, 152’ with a breadth of 22’. She was built in 1873 for Griffith Jones & Co. who would also sail as her master. Jones was Welsh by birth, born in 1831 in Llannor.  FROLIC was built in Baltimore's Gardner Brothers shipyard for the Opium Trade. When steamers came along in the late 1850's it was perfect timing for FROLIC to switch to the busy California trade, fueled by the new California Gold Rush. FROLIC was carrying a rich cargo when she was shipwrecked off Point Cabrillo, California in 1850. When it was discovered in the 1980's the wreck...

Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas Signed lower right Unique work 1 / Hélène DUCLOS, 2016 – Artist Statement “Questioning the human condition and the position of being alive – W...

Oil paint on canvas Signed lower right

Oil and acrylic on canvas Signed lower right Unique work 1 / Hélène DUCLOS, 2016 – Artist Statement “Questioning the human condition and the position of being alive – What is it to...

Provenance: Christie’s, London, 3 March 1922, lot 46 (with The Tower of Babel); James Nicoll Private Collection Sotheby’s, London, 29 March 1983, lot 157 Private Collection, New Yo...