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Rounding the Mark
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
A colorful palette combined with a feathery brush technique mark this action filled image of two Grand Banks schooners rounding a mark in the International Fisherman's Races off Lune...
Category
1920s Post-Impressionist Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Shipping in the River Humber Off Hull, England
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This original watercolor on paper features traffic on the River Humber in the City of Hull. Hull or Kingston upon Hull, is a port city in East Yorkshire, England. The painting is hig...
Category
1870s Victorian Landscape Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
The Broken Mast
By George Curtis
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
It is subjectively proven that artistic inspiration strikes individuals in varied and unique ways. In this single painting, an appreciative audience may examine how the early luminou...
Category
1870s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
American Merchant Ship S.S. PLEIADES, Later WWI US Navy Ship USS PLEIADES
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Excellent attention to detail has brought forth a superb rendering of the armed American merchant marine freighter S.S. PLEIADES in wartime grey departing Le Havre during World War I...
Category
1910s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Aftermath of a Tyne River Storm
By Robert Salmon
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Painted with unsurpassed detail, Robert Salmon's works are desirable to collectors the world over, due to the impressive amount of historic subject matter presented through artistic compositions of the highest order. As an artist Salmon was one of the most important to come out of England and immigrate to America in this period, influencing the art of Fitz Henry Lane...
Category
1840s Realist Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
A Day's Sail in New England
By Mauritz Frederick Hendrick de Haas
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
An able sailor guides a fine sloop through the choppy waters of a busy American port in this work by Dutch-American artist Maurtiz DeHaas. Given the sailor's hat, what appears to be ...
Category
1860s Realist Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
SAPPHO, DAUNTLESS and GRACIE Racing at Cape May 1871
By James Edward Buttersworth
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
James E. Buttersworth's most sought-after artworks emerge from his depictions of American racing yachts going head to head in the major regattas...
Category
1870s American Realist Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
British Schooner Anchored at Naples
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
A classic scene of a large mid-Nineteenth Century schooner at rest in the Mediterranean port painted by the Italian countryman Tomaso De Simone. The complete narrative scene around the schooner's broadside is complemented with a British merchant steam/sail ship, local boats and the colorful sky and headland architecture of the ancient city.
The vast serenity and unspoiled life of cruising the Mediterranean Ocean...
Category
1860s Realist Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Harbor Scene
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This highly detailed harbor scene features many ships of various types, something British Royal Naval officer and artist Commander Charles Lodder would have seen in his everyday life...
Category
1870s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Cutter SPHINX Wins the first Royal Albert Cup at Southsea, 1866
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
The premier artist of yacht racing in the south of England, Arthur Wellington Fowles captures the victory of the Cutter SPHINX in the first regatta of the Royal Albert Yacht Club in ...
Category
1860s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Five-Masted Schooner ELINOR H.
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
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...
Category
1920s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
Great Lakes Tugboat CALUMET
By Otto Muhlenfeld
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
An artist who knew the vessels he painted firsthand, Baltimore artist Otto Muhlenfeld has captured the Great Lakes Steam Tug CALUMET in a colorful, working profile. Her American Ensi...
Category
1890s Folk Art Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
USS CHICAGO Off Castle Williams and Governor's Island, New York Harbor
By Granville Perkins
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Maritime paintings of the late 19th Century often give great insight into the massive transition which happened in shipbuilding in that period: the end of the sailing ships as mercha...
Category
1890s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Amercan Merchant Ship in Philadelphia Harbor
By Thomas Birch
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Thomas Birch is considered one of the earliest American Marine painters of importance both in his own time and historically, forming the foundation of what would become a great American Maritime movement in the successive years of the 19th century.
Born in England, Birch started as a landscape painter but after the War of 1812 he turned to marine subjects, taking inspiration from the best of both English and Dutch maritime traditions but refining these techniques into a very recognizable style all his own.
The work featured here is a classic of Birch's later period, when he focused specifically on maritime subjects, mainly the busy waterways of Philadelphia Harbor. Here we see one of those scenes- a series of ships plying their trade, all framed by the city as it sits across the Delaware River, with the tall, white spire of what is either Independence Hall or Christ Church to the left of the main vessel. The details of the city are particularly good in this painting, with the wharf building to the left and the long line of buildings all along the shore.
The American Merchant Bark at the center of this painting is rendered in excellent detail, from her house flag and pennant, to her rigging and sails, and down to her deck filled with the activity of crewmembers readying the ship to head out, her gilt billet...
Category
1840s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
The Hudson River Sidewheel Steamer J.M.A.
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This small and finely painted piece depicts the sidewheel steamer J.M.A. underway carrying passengers along the Hudson River. With flags snapping in the wind and whitecaps on the riv...
Category
1890s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Yacht KITSKAD Off Catalina Island
By J. Duncan Gleason
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Duncan Gleason lived in New York and other places for work or studies but it was really Southern California where he felt most at home, and looking at his body of work, that love of ...
Category
1950s Modern Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
New York Harbor Near Castle Garden
By Elisha Taylor Baker
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
In this atmospheric and luminous work by E.T. Baker, the busy port of New York hosts a huge number of ships coming and going near the Battery and the famous landmark of Castle Garden...
Category
1860s Other Art Style Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Whitehaven Quay
By Robert Salmon
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Whitehaven is a small town and port on the coast of Cumbria, England 70 miles North of Liverpool. Historically a part of Cumberland, it has a manmade harbor which partially dries out...
Category
1820s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel, Cardboard
Regatta in Sydney Harbour
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Period yacht racing is a rare and desirable subject for marine paintings, and a 19th century work from Australia of this prime subject is among the rarest finds we may offer. The artist, Charles F. Gerrard, shows up in 1882 on the Sydney professional trade list as a painter, then as a marine artist and finally as simply 'artist'. He exhibits his first works with the Royal Art Society in Sydney in 1884, consisting of coastal scenes. He is extremely well received by his contemporaries according to newspaper reports.
The recognizable features of "The Rocks", along the western shore of Sydney cove near the harbor bridge, stands forth as a superb background for the racing yachts. This historic location is the foundation of the British Australian empire, and today is the oldest preserved colonial district in the country, described as "Sydney's outdoor museum".
Fine-lined cutter yachts compete over a sailing course, with two shown in great close detail while five more hold their positions in the regatta, as the rhythmic small swells are evidence the wind favors the leaders running on close reaches with the crossing tide. The crew and yachts are very much in the British formal yachting manner, with full uniforms and the plum-bow hulls. Note that there is one crew attired in red, possibly a naval marine team, and the sail steam ship anchored in the center flies the Australian Colonial...
Category
1880s Other Art Style Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Bark ST. GEORGE off South Stack
By William G. Yorke
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This fine portrait is of the merchant bark ST. GEORGE sailing past the South Stack Lighthouse, the last signaling station in a chain of twelve leading ships along the Welsh coast and out to sea from Liverpool Harbor. Painted with great detail throughout, the ship features multiple figures on deck, in full sail and with flags flying including that of her owners Hall and Fairweather of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada.
The bright scene has particularly nice cloud work in the sky and features the stylized short, green swells with a touch of white spray typical of the Liverpool school artists. At her bow, another sailing ship heads...
Category
1870s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Bronze Statue of Prince Albert Edward as a Sailor Boy
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This statue is of Prince Albert Edward, eldest son of Queen Victoria, Prince of Wales, future King Edward VII (1841-1910) dressed in a sailor suit. After a very popular painting of the young prince done in 1846 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-73) that is in the collection of the British Royal Family.
Category
1890s Victorian Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
Follow the Leader
By Joseph Witham
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
The most important maritime center in the 19th century, Liverpool, had many advantages. Located on the England-facing west coast of the Irish Sea, the Mersey approach was wide, deep and actively associated with all aspects of shipping. It also faced northwest, as the distressed fleet in Witham's work has discovered on a stormy February 8, 1881.
To the rescue of the 12 ships, the Pilot Schooner No.2, LEADER, signals the fleet to follow, using the pre-1900 commercial code signals "l w c". She has waited for the rising tide and keeps the line tight to the red starboard buoy, Q1, which marks the beginning of the Queen's Channel. Within a span of hours, all twelve ships were led successfully to their docks.
Witham painted the scene in conjunction with the great acclaim the Pilots received in 1881, and it became so popular that he painted additional works marking the event over time. His local contemporary, Samuel Walters...
Category
1890s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Barkentine THOMAS P. EMIGH with Photos and Ephemera
By William Edgar
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Reaching under full sail, including a jib-headed "kicker" topsail on the Jigger mast, the white-hulled barkentine THOMAS P. EMIGH is depicted approaching what appears to be the headl...
Category
Early 1900s American Realist Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
William Astor's Schooner AMBASSADRESS Leads the Regatta
By James Edward Buttersworth
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
William Astor Pilots the New York Yacht Club Run
A superior and graceful schooner as grand as any ever built, AMBASSADRESS was William Backhouse Astor, Jr's "floating home" from its launch in 1877 until he sold it in 1884 and purchased his massive steam/sail yacht...
Category
1870s American Realist Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Colonel Bates Leads the 30th Colored Infantry at the Battle of the Crater
By Abbott Fuller Graves
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Colonel Bates Leads the 30th Colored Infantry at the Battle of the Crater
Watercolor on Paper Circa 1903
15 ½ x 21 ½ Inches 25 ½ x 33 ½ Inches Framed
LR: Graves
This rare portrait of African American troops serving in battle during the Civil War depicts the 30th United States Colored Infantry at the Battle of the Crater, at Petersburg, Virginia. The regiment was composed of African American enlisted men commanded by white officers and was authorized by the Bureau of Colored Troops which was created by the United States War Department on May 22, 1863.
The Battle of the Crater, July 30th, 1864, was part of the Siege of Petersburg, fought between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade (under the direct supervision of the general-in-chief, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant).
At the top of the painting, Colonel Delevan Bates raises his saber to lead the charge of the 30th United States Colored Infantry. Bates was promoted to this command just prior to this battle, having served with distinction in the 121st New York Infantry at the Battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Though the Battle of the Crater would eventually be won by the Confederacy, it was here that Bates and 23 other troops would be award the United States highest award for bravery during combat, the Medal of Honor.
After weeks of preparation, on July 30, Union forces exploded a mine in Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's IX Corps sector, blowing a gap in the Confederate defenses of Petersburg, Virginia. From this propitious beginning, everything deteriorated rapidly for the Union attackers. Unit after unit charged into and around the crater, where soldiers milled in confusion. Grant considered the assault "the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war." The Confederates quickly recovered and launched several counterattacks led by Brig. Gen. William Mahone. The breach was sealed off, and Union forces were repulsed with severe casualties. Brig. Gen. Edward Ferrero's division of black soldiers...
Category
Early 1900s American Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Ship GLORY OF THE SEAS
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Carl G. Evers was an artist with a very impressive body of work who deserves more attention in the maritime genre. The son of a maritime engineer father and an artist mother, it seem...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Distant Island
By Frederick Waugh
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Frederick Waugh was a prolific seascape artist who generated 2,500 paintings of the sea and shore. Although it was never published, he penned a ten chapter book on marine painting. S...
Category
1920s American Realist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
PRINZ EUGEN - A Royal Demise
By Arthur Edwaine Beaumont
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
In this composite image Naval Artist Arthur Beaumont shows us the final moments of the German battleship PRINZ EUGEN, as the ghosts of her former comra...
Category
1940s Post-War Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Full Rigged Ship GATHERER
By Alexander Charles Stuart
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
A stalwart American ship clearing the Delaware headed for Honolulu with a load of coal, this broadside ship portrait by Alexander Charles Stuart is of the Ship GATHERER. In her maiden year of service, the Bath, Maine-built Downeaster went to New Orleans with hay, took a load of cotton from there to Liverpool, and crossed to collect the coal in Philadelphia before heading to Hawaii. She'd make 8 Cape Horn voyages, averaging about 129 days, a profitable and fast sailing Downeaster, and yet still record one of the bloodiest voyages in merchant maritime history.
In this portrait, A.C. Stuart shows the large wooden vessel...
Category
1870s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Coming Through the Mists, Maine Harbor
By George M. Hathaway
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
In this atmospheric Maine harbor view, the grey tone of the fog enveloping the sea and sky lend an air of realism to a striking composition. Granite and green are the colors of the Maine Coast...
Category
1890s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
VOLUNTEER Off Sandy Hook, Heading Out to Race in the Goelet Cup
By James Edward Buttersworth
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This atmospheric painting by James E. Butterworth depicts a group of yachts leaving New York Harbor on the annual New York Yacht Club cruise. In 1887, when this was painted, upon arr...
Category
1880s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
AUSTRALASIAN Off South Sydney Heads
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Proud Liner of the Aberdeen White Star Line, AUSTRALASIAN carried emigrants and first-class passengers to Australia and South Asia in the late 1880s & 1890s. This colorful period woo...
Category
1880s Folk Art Mixed Media
Materials
Wool, Dye
At the Yacht Club
By Edward Cucuel
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
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...
Category
1920s Impressionist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Breaking Surf
By Sally Swatland
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
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...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
BLACK WARRIOR at Sea
By James Bard
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
A striking portrait of a very large American sidewheel paddle steamer on her maiden voyage from New York to Mobile, Alabama, and on from there to Havana, Cuba. The BLACK WARRIOR began the voyage in her home port of New York City. Bard has undoubtedly painted her in concert with either her listed builder, William Collyer of New York, whose name is included by the artist on the canvas, or the owners, Livingston, Crocheron & Co. Launched in 1852, the line soon moved its southern base to New Orleans, establishing a foothold in a region soon in direct competition with the Vanderbilt and Morgan families.
Her deep luster coloration is expertly portrayed by Bard. He has used draftsmanship in composing the full outline of the steam/sail transition vessel, and then worked in painstaking detail to apply every touch of oil, down to the pointillist-style of the water's wake against the hull and the top of the ocean swells. The brooding sky colors compliment the impressive heavy sense of the 1556-ton steam/sail paddlewheeler, with the flags brightly displayed before the clouded sky. Several gentlemen sailors are visible on deck, attending to the coast-wise Atlantic journey. With the placement of the American Government's streaming pennant at the main mast top, undoubtedly this included mail to the South, and possibly return news of the recent Gold Boom in California. She would stay on this route until a snow squall off Rockaway, Long Island put her aground on Feb. 20, 1859.
Full Artist Inscription LL: Steam Ship Black...
Category
1850s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Bark HESPER Unloading Lumber at San Diego
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This bright and serene scene of ships unloading off San Diego, California features a ship with a less than quiet history. The painting shows a typically bright and sunny Southern California day, the deep blue waters of San Diego providing the perfect backdrop for unloading crucial lumber for construction. The painting has Thimgan's eye for detail including the historic ship he's depicted, surely with a knowledge of her history, and his ability to so perfectly depict California's coastal landscape and surrounding waters.
Some ships of legend get their reputations not for speed or daring rescues, but for the amount of chaos which happens onboard. Sailors, being generally a superstitious lot, could spread a ship's reputation like wildfire. As with the supposedly haunted places on land, the odd instances become larger tales whispered over strong drink in port or at worst, printed in bold newspaper headlines. The best crews don't want to serve aboard such vessels, so only the most hardened men sign on. Tempers flare and conditions deteriorate. Over time a ship gains the nickname of "hell ship" or "blood ship." This was the fate of the Bark HESPER.
HESPER was purpose built in 1882 for the Pacific "Triangle Trade" - carrying lumber to Australia, coal to Hawaii and sugar to California, though she took on other cargoes in her career. The wooden bark of 603 tons was built by the Halls Brothers...
Category
Early 2000s Photorealist Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Brig EPHRATAH of Port Madoc Entering Naples
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
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...
Category
1870s Other Art Style Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Ship LUCY G. DOW
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
The strength of a great ship portrait lies with its overall striking composition blended with an attention to detail. Charles Sidney Raleigh was extremely skilled with both elements, and this is one of his finest works. An American full-rigged ship of large proportions, LUCY G. DOW is one of many ships owned by Maine interests, where the ship would be locally built and consortium owned. More Maine captains owned part of their ships than any other East Coast region, it appears through an informal survey of lists.
Note the fine details of the captain and crew hard at work onboard off the coast. The numerous buildings are clustered on the peninsular stretch with a pier coming out near the lighthouse’s walkway. At the distance, ship masts...
Category
1880s Other Art Style Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
On the Coast of Holland, Fishing Boat Ready for Sea
By William Edward Norton
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
An interesting homage to the issue of rank amongst the crews and officers of all vessels, a captain is carried to his ready command by one of his subordinates through the ocean surf ...
Category
1890s Other Art Style Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Macao
By 19th Century Chinese school
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
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...
Category
1860s Other Art Style Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Printemps
By Charles Levier
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
A beautiful woman sits at an open window, gazing down at a small bird who has landed nearby in this serene portrait by Charles Levier. Warm orange tones are played off their complements in shades of blue, the artist utilizing several different layers of oils to create a subtle and relaxed view of a spring day near the sea. Beyond the window a small chapel sits on a peninsula, surrounded tranquil blue waters.
This work, like many of Levier's, belongs to the French figurative movement of the Glorious Thirty (Les Trente Glorieuses) - the golden period of thirty years after WWII which were a time of great hope and prosperity in France. Inspired by Hollywood cinema, Charles Levier sought harmony in composition and purity of color and form. His said that his creations represented "a light and delicate world, of dark and subtle shades and colors."
Levier worked in a somewhat abstracted, cubist style. Additionally he often employed the French technique of "cloisonnism" (after the French for "partition"), a style of post-Impressionist painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours, also seen in this work. The term was coined by critic Edouard Dujardin on the occasion of the Salon des Indépendants, in March 1888 and was commonly used by artists like Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin, Paul...
Category
Mid-20th Century Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Visiting Day at the US Life Saving Service
By Xanthus Russell Smith
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Although suggesting a yacht or boating club due to its prime waterfront location, this panoramic view by Philadelphia artist Xanthus Smith, most likely shows a US Lifesaving Service facility in one of the mid-Atlantic states.
Originating in the mid-1800’s, the U.S. Lifesaving Service’s earliest buildings were strictly utilitarian, but as the Service grew, so did the size of the stations. By the 1880s, they were becoming more fashionable and usually were made up of two or three structures as shown here. The main building contained the offices and berthing area for the crew and usually featured a lookout tower on the roof. Smaller buildings housed classrooms and medical facilities. Some were built to resemble a Swiss chalet and one was even designed with a clock tower. Noted architect A. B. Bibb designed stations like this one that looked much like beach resort homes with lookout towers. The stations were usually located near the approaches to major ports and were maintained by the United States Revenue Marine (later renamed the United States Revenue Cutter...
Category
1860s Other Art Style Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Pair of Portraits, Captain and Mrs. Evelyn R. Le Marchant
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This charming and distinguished looking couple still survive in the radiance of their youth captured for all time by the Plymouth portraitist W. Andresen. Although we know little about the artist, his skill is evident in the fine quality of these images.
Captain Evelyn R. le Marchant, commander of his Britannic majesty's battleship `Nile', posed for this portrait in Plymouth, England in January 1906. His vessel, one of the earliest battleships to operate without sails, is shown anchored in the background. The following month his lovely wife Edith posed for her portrait. These two fine images show an interesting balance with the man of the sea in his element and his shoreside wife surrounded by her garden.
Both paintings are very well done in watercolor with added body color, pencil, and charcoal. Their condition is outstanding and both are mounted in their original period frames with antique glass.
Sight Size: 41 Inches x 29¾ Inches each.
Each painting signed LR: W. Andresen, Plymouth
Vallejo Gallery features the finest in marine and maritime antiques...
Category
Early 1900s Portrait Paintings
Materials
Paper, Mixed Media
The Brigantine E. MILLER
By Elisha Taylor Baker
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
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...
Category
1860s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Swimmer
By Pietro Barzanti
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This very finely carved statue is of a swimmer just leaning over to dive into an unseen pool. Signed P. Barzanti, Florence for Pietro Barzanti (1825-1895) of Florence, Italy. Barzani was a well known sculptor known for classical works in marble which is reflected in this figure's very delicate facial features and the skill shown in the carving of her hair and the cloth of her bathing costume...
Category
1870s Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Marble
American Steam Schooner Meets British Frigates Crossing the English Channel
By James Edward Buttersworth
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
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...
Category
1830s Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Cunard-White Star Lines R.M.S. QUEEN MARY and Moet Chandon Original Advertising
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Since the dawn of advertising, luxury brands have sought partnerships to increase their cache among clientele. In 1912 champagne maker Moet & Chandon was set to do so with the White Star Line and their new ships OLYMPIC and TITANIC. The match was nearly obvious due a naming coincidence. Moet had been producing dry champagne under the label White Star since 1865; and it was their flagship imprint in the U.S. for over a century.
The White Star line started even earlier, in 1845. Though TITANIC’s fate would briefly interfere, the companies did associate and Moet’s White Star champagne was served aboard White Star Liners for many years and later also Cunard White Star Ships like QUEEN MARY.
In this outstanding and colorful portrait, the QUEEN MARY...
Category
1930s Art Deco Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Mixed Media
On the Clyde
By Robert Salmon
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This view by Robert Salmon shows diverse maritime activity on the narrow waterway known as The Kyles of Bute, in the Firth of Clyde. On the central horiz...
Category
1810s Other Art Style Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Period Lithograph on Tin of SS IMPERATOR
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This period lithograph of the S.S. IMPERATOR includes its original period frame with plaque. There are a few nicks on the tin but the condition is overall excellent.
SS IMPERATOR was a German ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line. At the time of her completion in June 1913, she was the largest passenger ship in the world by gross tonnage, surpassing the new White Star liner OLYMPIC.
IMPERATOR was the first of three successively larger Hamburg American liners that included SS Vaterland (later the United States Liner LEVIATHAN) and SS Bismarck (purchased and renamed MAJESTIC for the White Star Line transatlantic passenger service).
IMPERATOR ran a transatlantic route for 14 months, until the outbreak of World War I, after which she remained in port in Hamburg. After the war, she was briefly commissioned into the United States Navy as USS IMPERATOR and employed as a troop transport, returning American troops from Europe. Following her service with the U.S. Navy, IMPERATOR was handed over to Britain's Cunard Line as part of war reparations, due to the loss of the RMS LUSITANIA...
Category
1910s Other Art Style Prints and Multiples
Materials
Lithograph
View of the Hongs, Canton
By 19th Century Chinese school
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Sought by collectors worldwide, art and artifacts showing an early western presence in the Orient boomed with the opening of the China Trade by way of the sailing ship. The surviving paintings which capture the important Chinese harbors...
Category
1850s Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Maryland Ship DEFENCE Chases the British Sloop OTTER Down Chesapeake Bay
By Leslie Arthur Wilcox
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This large and exciting scene features an American Revolutionary War battle in Chesapeake Bay. With great color and lively brushwork this painting was done at a large scale which captures a grand vista of the Bay along with many small vignettes to draw the eye. No less than ten other ships surround the two combatant vessels as they exchange cannon fire...
Category
1970s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Start of the Great 1866 Transatlantic Yacht Race
By James Edward Buttersworth
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
A beautiful painting with historic importance, three schooner yachts line up before the Sandy Hook Lightship for the start of the world's first Transatlantic Yacht Race held in 1866. In his book, "J.E. Buttersworth, 19th Century Marine Painter", biographer Rudolph J. Schaefer has noted six views by the artist of this event. This is largest of the known works of this important benchmark in American yacht racing.
Identification of the racing schooners is assisted by the special colored flags worn by the yachts. Foremost in the painting, wearing the Blue was HENRIETTA, owned by renowned newspaper publisher and infamous yachtsman James Gordon Bennett, Jr. White was atop the mast of VESTA, owned by tobacco baron and racehorse aficionado Pierre Lorillard, who initiated the competition with a dinner party boast over turtle soup...
Category
1860s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Pluie a Venice (Venice in the Rain)
By André Hambourg
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
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...
Category
1960s Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Dreaming Anew, Departing New York Harbor
By Henry Bacon
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Pensive in thought sitting at a wood-slat stern bench of a departing vessel in New York Harbor, the prominent grandeur of the Statue of Liberty recently passed, a woman and her loyal...
Category
1890s Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Solent Ones Rounding the Lepe Mark
By Montague Dawson
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
Solent One Racers cut across the rolling waves in this striking work by master maritime artist Montague Dawson. These are racing on the Solent, the strait between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland.
The Solent One Design was one of the first One Design classes created. 22 were built between 1896 and 1897 for members of the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Island Sailing Club. Here, there is a fair wind...
Category
1950s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Napoleonic War Battle of Pulo Aura
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This large and epic battle scene commemorates one of the most unusual actions of the Napoleonic Wars. The British Honourable East India Company’s China...
Category
Early 1800s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Clipper FLYING FISH in San Francisco Bay
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
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...
Category
1990s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
PURITAN vs GENESTA, America's Cup 1885
By Edward Moran
Located in Costa Mesa, CA
This impressive painting by Edward Moran does justice to the epic America’s Cup Challenge of 1885. Moran’s point of view captures the day’s enormity to the world’s yacht racers and designers. This account portrays PURITAN’s second and decisive victory of the match on the 40-mile course, 20 miles leeward from the Sandy Hook Lightship and back. PURITAN reached the line a scant 1 minute 38 seconds in front, the closest margin of victory to date.
Well publicized and awaited on both sides of the Atlantic, the race held the public’s interest while knowledgeable yachtsmen waited to see if Boston’s Edward Burgess had innovated the centerboard sloop design to a degree capable of holding off the challenge of a true English cutter. GENESTA was designed by John Beavor-Webb, for her owner, Sir Richard Sutton...
Category
1880s Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
