12 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #41

Christophe J Guise, (American, 20th C)
Whaling ships
Acrylic on board
61" x 19"
Private collection

A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, the catching or processing of whales. The sail or steam-driven whaleship of the 16th to early 20th century and the floating factory. There have also been vessels which combined the two activities, such as the bottlenose whalers of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Whaleships had two or more whaleboats, open rowing boats used in the capture of whales. Whaleboats brought the captured whales to the whaleships to be flensed or cut up. Here the blubber was rendered into oil using two or three try-pots set in a brick furnace called the tryworks.

At first, whale catchers either brought the whales they killed to a whaling station or factory ship anchored in a sheltered bay or inlet. Later, with the development of the slipway at the ship's stern, whale catchers were able to transfer their catch to factory ships operating in the open sea. More on Whaling ships

Christophe J Guise, (American, 20th C) was active/lived in United States, England. Christopher Guise is known for marine paintings.

Johannes Holst, (1880 - 1965)
Cutty Sark, c. 1944
Oil on canvas
70 x 99,5 cm
Private collection

Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built on the Clyde in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion.

The opening of the Suez Canal (also in 1869) meant that steam ships now enjoyed a much shorter route to China, so Cutty Sark spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia, where she held the record time to Britain for ten years. Improvements in steam technology meant that gradually steamships also came to dominate the longer sailing route to Australia and the ship was sold to the Portuguese company Ferreira and Co. in 1895, and renamed Ferreira. She continued as a cargo ship until purchased by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman in 1922, who used her as a training ship. After his death, Cutty Sark was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College, Greenhithe in 1938 where she became an auxiliary cadet training ship. By 1954 she was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London on public display. More on the Cutty Sark

Johannes Holst, (October 22, 1880 in Hamburg-Altenwerder - July 5, 1965 in Hamburg). Influenced by the profession of his father,  he was a skipper,  and by the closeness to Elbe and sea, Johannes became interested in shipping at an early age.
He completed an apprenticeship as an ornamental painter at the studio of Julius and Hinrich Lüdders.

At first he painted fishing boats, his later works were of sailing ships and steamers on the high seas. Stormy weather at sea are characteristical for his paintings. Holst created works of very high quality in a realistic manner of painting. The ships painted by him show every detail. The water is also depicted very realistically.

Holst was a very active artist and was tasked by many shipowners to paint portraits of their ships because of his high quality works. Portraits of sailing ships, for the shipping company F. Laeisz in Hamburg et al., form the main part of his complete works that consists of about 1000 paintings. The paintings of Holst are especially valued in northern Germany. More on Johannes Holst

Frans Hens, (Belgian 1856-1928)
Harbor scene with steamship
Oil on canvas
23-1/2" x 39-1/2" 
Private collection

Frans Hens (1 August 1856, Antwerp – 11 May 1928, Antwerp) was a Belgian post-impressionist painter, draftsman and printmaker. He was one of the first European artists to paint in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Hens was born in Antwerp and began his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1872. He went to America in 1873, but returned the following year to continue his education at the Academy, where he became influenced by exhibitions of post-impressionist art.

In 1886, he visited the  "Congo Free State". Finding himself impressed with the artistic potential of Africa, he made another trip there from 1887 to 1888. He travelled throughout the Bas-Congo, then sailed up the Congo River to what is now Équateur Province, painting landscapes along the way. Upon his return to Belgium, he held several successful exhibitions, but was later ignored at the Exposition Internationale d'Anvers (1894).

Following this snub, he joined with Eugène Broerman to produce a diorama that would be displayed in a pavilion devoted to the Congo (currently the Royal Museum for Central Africa) at the Brussels International (1897). The project was never fully realized. Ironically, many of his works are now part of the permanent collection at the museum.

He was a member of several artists' associations, including Pour l'Art and Weest U Zelve (Be Yourself) and was a founding member of De XIII and Kunst van Heden (Art of Today). From 1919 to 1923, he was a teacher at the Royal Academy. Despite the prominence given to his African paintings, most of his work was focused on the Belgian coast, with ships as a recurring theme. He died in his native city of Antwerp, aged 71. More on Frans Hens 

John Cuthbert Hare, (American, 1908-1978)
Overcast scene with boats in a harbor
Oil on canvas
height 31'', width 25''
Private collection

John Cuthbert Hare, 1908-1978, was a watercolorist who painted boats, seascapes and harbor scenes. He was primarily associated with New England, especially Cape Cod, Massachusetts where he spent his summers from 1938 to 1965. However, he lived in Florida where he was a member of the St. Augustine Art Association. He first studied commercial art in Brooklyn at the Pratt Institute and also studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan. He worked for Hearst newspapers corporation, and in 1933 married. In the next few years, he and his wife traveled extensively, camping and painting and exhibiting his work in galleries. In Provincetown, they also exhibited paintings that Hare had completed in Florida.The couple liked St. Augustine so well that they returned two years later, joined the Art Association, and set up a studio. Attracted to the rolling farmland, they moved to Amherst, Massachusetts. He also painted at Gloucester, and from 1967 to 1977 they lived at Yarmouthport and in 1977, moved to Palm Beach, Florida where he died three years later.His work is in the collections of the Lowe Art Museum, the Lightner Museum in Florida and the Smith College Museum of Art in Massachusetts. More on John Cuthbert Hare

Simon van Gelderen, (1814 - 1890)
Hazy Morning in a Harbour
Oil on canvas
61 x 80,5 cm
Private collection

Henri Eugene Callot,  (French 1875-1956)
Marine painting with sailboat
Oil on canvas
23-1/2" x 32" 
Private collection

CALLOT, Henri Eugène (Born 20 December 1875, in La Rochelle; died 22 December 1956, in Paris), Henri Callot studied under Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury and went on to exhibit at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1898 to 1936, securing election to the Society and a gold medal (1920). He also exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Art. More on Henri Eugene Callot

KOEKKOEK, HERMANUS the Elder, (Middleburg 1815 - 1882 Haarlem) 
Dutch coastal view with ships at sea. 
Oil on canvas. 
37.5 x 59.5 cm. 
Private collection

KOEKKOEK, HERMANUS the Elder, (Middleburg 1815 - 1882 Haarlem). The Koekkoek family is one of the most celebrated artistic families in the history of Dutch 19th century painting. Hermanus Koekkoek was born in Middelburg and was the youngest of four sons of Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek (1778-1851). His eldest brother Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803-1862) was renowned for his landscape painting and was arguably the most famous artist of the family. Hermanus trained with his father, moving to Amsterdam in 1832 where he exhibited at the Koninklijke Academy. Like his father, he mostly painted maritime subjects and travelled extensively throughout the Netherlands for his inspiration. He had four sons, all of whom were talented painters in their own right, notably Willem Koekkoek (1839-1895) who exhibited regularly in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. More on the Koekkoek family


Joe Duncan Gleason, (1881 - 1959 Glendale, CA) 
'Clipper Bohemia, From Sketch Made While Under Sail'
Oil on canvas laid to canvas 
30' H x 40' W 
Private collection


Clipper Bohemia; built on speculation by Houghton Brothers at Bath; ME in 1875. This vessel was used primarily in the California trade; making 12 Westward passages averaging 132 days and 11 Eastward passages averaging 119 days. In 1894-95 she made one voyage in the Philipine Trade. In 1897 she joined the Alaska Packers fleet and was home ported in San Francisco. Bohemia remained in the Alaskan Cannery service until 1925 when she was sold to the shipbreakers. However; she was saved from the breakers and purchased by the Los Angeles Motion Pictures Concerns company and became part of the 'Movie Fleet'. In 1926 Duncan Gleason was hired as a consultant to Cecil B. DeMille to work on the silent film 'Yankee Clipper'. Gleason sailed aboard Bohemia which was used for on deck scenes in the movie. A bow sketch study Gleaon made in 1926 became the foundation for this work which was painted nearly 25 years later. Bohemia was deliberately blown up and sunk during the making of a movie about submarine warfare in the early 1930's. More on Downeaster Bohemia


For Joe Duncan Gleason,  (1881 - 1959 Glendale, CA) It was boating - and life on the sea, in general - that steered the motley professions and avocations of the California painter Joe Duncan Gleason. Trained at the Chicago Art Institute and the New York Arts Students' League, he illustrated for various magazines, including Leslie's Monthly, Ladies Home Journal, and Forecast, from 1903 to 1914; during this period, while competing as a gymnast in national competitions, he acquired a 36-foot yawl and sailed often on Long Island Sound. Gleason's earliest paintings are Impressionist in style and depict the scenic hills of his childhood Los Angeles as well as the peopled shores of nearby Laguna Beach. A brief return to New York from 1919 to 1924 inspired Gleason to take up marine painting, model shipbuilding, and writing about sailing: he published Windjammers, a book of etchings (1922), followed later by Islands of California (1950). In the mid-1920s, Gleason established his studio in the harbor town of San Pedro, California, and began consulting for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros., providing visual guides for the ships that appeared in such films as Yankee Clipper, Captain Blood, and The Charge of the Light Brigade. When not painting or lecturing on historical ships, he was sailing, both with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary during WW II and recreationally with the California Yacht Club.More on Joe Duncan Gleason

 STUDIO OF COURBET, GUSTAVE, (Ornans 1819 - 1877 La Tour-de-Peilz) 
The wave. 
Oil on canvas. 
38 x 56 cm. 
Private collection

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.

Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes and still lifes. He was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune, and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death. More Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet

Sir John Lavery, R.A., R.H.A., R.S.A., 1856-1941
THE ANGLER, c. 1911
Oil on canvasboard
25 by 35.5cm., 10 by 14in
Private collection

The Angler is likely to have been painted on the long strand to the east of the Medina at Tangier. Here, during winter rains, a stream known locally as the ‘Jews’ River’, ran off into the sea. It is unlikely to have been suitable for fishing, yet it and the neighbouring rocks were an endless source of fascination for the children in the Lavery entourage. More on this painting

Sir John Lavery RA (20 March 1856 – 10 January 1941) was an Irish painter best known for his portraits and wartime depictions. Born in Belfast Lavery attended Haldane Academy in Glasgow in the 1870s and the Académie Julian in Paris in the early 1880s. He returned to Glasgow and was associated with the Glasgow School. In 1888 he was commissioned to paint the state visit of Queen Victoria to the Glasgow International Exhibition. This launched his career as a society painter and he moved to London soon after. In London he became friendly with James McNeill Whistler and was clearly influenced by him.

Lavery was appointed an official artist in the First World War. Ill-health, however, prevented him from travelling to the Western Front. A serious car crash during a Zeppelin bombing raid also kept him from fulfilling this role as war artist. He remained in Britain and mostly painted boats, aeroplanes and airships. 

After the war he was knighted and in 1921 he was elected to the Royal Academy.


He and his wife were tangentially involved in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. They gave the use of their London home to the Irish negotiators during the negotiations leading to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In 1929, Lavery made substantial donations of his work to both The Ulster Museum and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery and in the 1930s he returned to Ireland. He received honorary degrees from the University of Dublin and Queen's University Belfast. He was also made a free man of both Dublin and Belfast. More on Sir John Lavery








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09 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #42

Hernando Gonzalo Villa,  (American 1881-1952) 
The Men
Ol on canvas,
25" x 18"
Private collection

Hernando Gonzalo Villa (born 1881, died 1952) was a prominent commercial artist and muralist whose work primarily depicted Native Americans, Mexican vaqueros, California missions, Spanish colonialists, and coastal views.

Villa was born in Los Angeles to Esiquia and Miguel de Villa. His parents came to Los Angeles as children from Baja California in 1846 when the area was still part of Mexico. He graduated from the Los Angeles School of Art and Design in 1905. Villa established himself as a commercial artist, illustrating magazines as well as a variety of artwork ranging from sheet music covers to newspaper advertisements, and a poster for the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago.

Villa also executed easel paintings throughout his career which he showed primarily in California. He  was also a celebrated muralist who created murals for Tally’s New Broadway Theater in Los Angeles in 1916, the New Rialto Theater in Phoenix in 1921, and Citizen Bank in Los Angeles in 1926. Villa won a gold medal for a mural exhibited at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in 1915. More on Hernando Gonzalo Villa

Johannes Holst
The Siam in choppy Sea, c. 1936
Oil on canvas
70,5 x 100 cm
Private collection

The Siam, a fairly speedy ship of 745 tons, made four consecutive voyages to Auckland from 1865 till 1868, in command of Captain William Ashby. She was a favourite ship with passengers, and the whole of her berthing accommodation was taken up both on the outward and homeward passages. 

The ship was unfortunate in striking severe gales on all the outward passages. More on THE SIAM

Johannes Holst, (October 22, 1880 in Hamburg-Altenwerder - July 5, 1965 in Hamburg)Influenced by the profession of his father,  he was a skipper,  and by the closeness to Elbe and sea, Johannes became interested in shipping at an early age.
He completed an apprenticeship as an ornamental painter at the studio of Julius and Hinrich Lüdders.

At first he painted fishing boats, his later works were of sailing ships and steamers on the high seas. Stormy weather at sea are characteristical for his paintings. Holst created works of very high quality in a realistic manner of painting. The ships painted by him show every detail. The water is also depicted very realistically.

Holst was a very active artist and was tasked by many shipowners to paint portraits of their ships because of his high quality works. Portraits of sailing ships, for the shipping company F. Laeisz in Hamburg et al., form the main part of his complete works that consists of about 1000 paintings. The paintings of Holst are especially valued in northern Germany. More on Johannes Holst

Roger Rosary
The Pourquois-Pas? in Greenland
Oil on canvas
50,5 x 65 cm
Private collection

The Pourquoi Pas ? IV was the fourth ship built for Jean-Baptiste Charcot. She completed the second Charcot expedition of the Antarctic regions from 1908 to 1910. Charcot died aboard when she was wrecked on 16 September 1936, off the coast of Iceland. Of the forty men on board, only one survived.

In September 1936, returning from the mission to Greenland, and after carrying out a survey mission, the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV stopped at Reykjavík to re-provision on 13 September. They set out for Saint-Malo two days later, on 15 September, but on 16 September the ship was caught in a violent cyclonic storm and lost on the reefs of Álftanes at Mýrar.  More on The Pourquoi Pas ?

Roger Chapelet (25 September 1903 - 30 June 1995) was a French maritime painter, born in Versailles, France. He discovered his maritime passion boarding the Rollo in 1927, where his brother was a radio operator in the port of Marseilles. This was the beginning of his painting career at sea. He would then make a series of paintings in various ports: Le Havre, Antwerp, and Rotterdam. He sailed for the first time in 1929 to explore new horizons, and he boarded sailing boats to paint the fishermen on the banks of Newfoundland and Greenland. In the 1930s, he became the painter of the main French naval armaments, and in 1936, he was named Peintre de la Marine and became a member of the Naval Academy. During World War II, Chapelet served on the transatlantic convoys between 1939 and 1940. From 1942 to 1945, he served as commissioner of the navy in the Mediterranean, and in 1946, in Indochina. Meanwhile, he continued to paint different military operations and naval battles. He returned to civilian life after the war, and he became the painter of several ship companies: Mixed Company, Paquet, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, National Navigation Company, etc. Chapelet died in Montpon-Ménestérol, France on 30 June 1995.

Along with Marin-Marie and Albert Brenet, Chapelet is considered one of the three great 20th century painters of the French Navy. More on Roger Rosary


Mary Blood Mellen, 1819 - 1886
Ship Leaving Harbor by Moonlight (Castine Harbor) 
Oil on canvas 
16 1/8 x 22 inches
Private collection

Castine is a town in Hancock County in eastern Maine, USA, which served from 1670 to 1674 as the capital of Acadia. Castine is the home of Maine Maritime Academy, a four-year institution that graduates officers and engineers for the United States Merchant Marine and marine related industries. 

During the 17th and early 18th century, New France defined the Kennebec River as the southern boundary of Acadia, which put Castine within Acadia. The town is named after Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin. More on Castine

Mary Blood Mellen, 1819 - 1886  is most known as a collaborative artist and friend to American Luminist master Fitz Henry Lane. Her known works are mostly of the greater Gloucester, Massachusetts region, although she studied art early in Sterling, Mass. Married at 21 to Rev. Charles Mellen in 1840, Mellen would visit family living in Gloucester and is known to have worked there alongside Lane, both in emulating his style and directly collaborating on at least one painting, a Maine coastal view which is signed by both, in the permanent collection of the Cape Ann Museum.

For years thought of principally as Lane’s student, it has been suggested that there was more of a professional equilibrium between the two artists, as their paintings as early as 1860 show strong similarities, and that Lane traveled with Mellen to paint a scene of her family’s home in Sterling. More works have been discovered, some unsigned, and attributed to both Mellen and/or Lane. While she followed his original luminist style, she was to become a marine master in her own right, painting on through the and one of very few women to paint 19th Century marine works. More on Mary Blood Mellen



WILLIAM SADLER II (C.1782-1839)
The Mouth of the Liffey with the Poolbeg Lighthouse and Shipping
Oil on panel
34.5 x 54.5cm
Private collection

The present work is an atmospheric panorama ranging from the north of Dublin city on the right with it's church spires over to south county Dublin on the extreme left, with views of Killiney and Dalkey and the Sugarloaf Mountain beyond. The main concentration however is on the myriad of ships that are heading into or exiting Dublin port. Sadler conveys the busyness of the channel leading into the city and the River Liffey, with an anchored coastal trader in the foreground and nearby a British naval frigate heading into port. Numerous other large sailing ships are evident further into the port area. 

The architectural landmarks are accurate, as you'd expect with the artist, whose skill in describing the topography of the city is well regarded. The Poolbeg Lighthouse is prominent, standing as it does at the end of the four kilometer long Great South Wall. Also visible is the Pigeon House Fort, built around the time of the 1798 Rebellion and which housed an armory, magazine, stores, a hospital and quarters for officers and men. A little further in several domes are visible, perhaps amongst them, the Custom’s House on the Liffey quays. More on this painting


William Sadler II (c.1782 – 1839) was an Irish painter, the son of the portrait painter and engraver William Sadler. Two of his sons became painters, the eldest being William Sadler III. Sadler, who grew up in Dublin, exhibited his paintings between 1809 and 1821 in the city. In 1828 and 1833 he exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy. Sadler also taught painting and one of his pupils was James Arthur O'Connor.

Sadler lived at a number of different addresses before settling in Manders' Building, Ranelagh, where he died in December 1839.

Sadler was greatly influenced by Dutch genre painting. More on William Sadler II

Mihály Zichy, (1827-1906)
Lifeboat, c. 1847
Oil on canvas
Height: 135 cm (53.1 in). Width: 190 cm (74.8 in).
Hungarian National Gallery

Mihály Zichy (October 15, 1827 in Zala, Hungary – February 28, 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist.

Zichy was a significant representative of Hungarian romantic painting. During his law studies in Pest from 1842, he attended Jakab Marastoni's school as well. In Vienna he was Waldmüller's pupil in 1844. "Lifeboat", his first major work, comes from this time. On Waldmüller's recommendation, he became an art teacher in St. Petersburg. He swore allegiance to freedom by painting the portrait of Lajos Batthyány, the first Hungarian prime minister, in 1849. From 1850 onwards, he worked as a retoucher, but he also did pencil drawings, water colours and portraits in oil. His erotic drawings have a particular warm intensity in which both members of the couple seem equal partners. He settled down in Paris in 1874.

In 1881 he was in Tbilisi, Georgia, where he started working on illustrations for "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" at the request of the Georgian intelligencia. He painted 35 pictures in total. The publishing commission of the work of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" chose 27 pictures to be included in the publication. The painter refused to take payment for the works, so impressed was he by the poem itself. Instead, he gifted the works to the Georgian people. More on Mihály Zichy


William Skilling, after Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, British/American (18?? - 1964)
Afternoon on the Beach (Beach at Zarauz), c. circa 1955
Oil on Canvas
48 x 60 in. (121.92 x 152.4 cm)
Private collection

Zarautz is a coastal town located in central Gipuzkoa, in Spain. It is bordered by Aia to the east and the south and Getaria to the west. It's located about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of San Sebastián. As of 2014, Zarautz has a population of 22,890, which usually swells to about 60,000 in the summer.

The Palace of Narros, located adjacent to Zarautz's 2.8 km long beach, is where Queen Isabella II and Fabiola of Belgium once spent their summer holidays. The beach is known for being the longest in the Basque Country and one of longest of the Cantabrian cornice. More on Zarautz


William Skilling, British/American (18?? - 1964) was a California artist known for portrait and landscape painting, he served in World War I and then settled in San Francisco where he died on April 8, 1964. He also did copies of work by artists including Edward Hicks, Parson Fisher and Giuseppe Arcimboldo. More on William Skilling


Lena Luckey, Prague, Czech Republic
By Land and Sea
Mixed Media on Canvas
30" x 48"
Private collection

Lena Luckey, born in Prague, Czech Republic, traveled throughout Europe, Northern Africa and Indonesia where she was exposed at an early age to diverse cultures. Lena’s travels were not always pleasant - much of her traveling was done during an extremely tumultuous period of her life – and it was only ten years ago that Lena finally found the balance in her life and her ability to express her deepest emotions through her artistic process (Lena is self-taught). Her life experiences are reflected in the diversity of subjects, styles, textures and colors in her artwork. More on Lena Luckey

Howard Chesner Behrens, (August 20, 1933 – April 14, 2014) 
Summer stroll
Oil on canvas
41.5 x 47.5 in. (105.4 x 120.6 cm.)
Private collection

Howard Chesner Behrens (August 20, 1933 – April 14, 2014) was American popular artist whose original works of art are sold in fine art galleries, at auction on cruise ships, and at Costco. Behrens' limited and open editions are sold internationally. Behrens was also one of the top-selling artists on Princess Cruises.

Behrens was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1933. He grew up near Washington, DC. He began drawing at age seventeen after being confined to bed following a sledding accident. His formal education in art was at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned a master's degree in painting and sculpture. Behrens was hired by the United States Government Printing Office, where his father was employed as a printer, and worked there for the next seventeen years. Behrens resided in Potomac, Maryland and died on April 14, 2014 after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. More on Howard Chesner Behrens











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10 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #38

Charles Dixon
Off Tilbury, c. 1912
Waterclor on paper on canvas
28.3x77.3 cm
Private collection

Tilbury is a town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. It was established in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a 16th century fort and an ancient cross-river ferry. Tilbury has a major deep-water port which contributes to the local economy.

Tilbury's history is closely connected with its geographical location. Its counterpart on the south bank of the River Thames, Gravesend, has long been an important communications link, and it was there that a cross-river ferry was connected, mainly due to the narrowness of the river at this point. More on Tilbury

Charles Edward Dixon (8 December 1872 - 12 September 1934) was a British maritime painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, whose work was highly successful and regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy. Several of his paintings are held by the National Maritime Museum and he was a regular contributing artist to magazines and periodicals. He lived at Itchenor in Sussex and died in 1934. More on Charles Edward Dixon

ADOLFO GIRÁDEDEZ Y PEÑALVER, (SPAIN, 1840-1920) 
PORT IN CADIZ
Oil on canvas
60 x 100 cm 
Private collection

Cádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of Cádiz, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.

Cádiz, the oldest continuously inhabited city in Spain and one of the oldest in western Europe, was founded by the Phoenicians. Cádiz is sometimes counted as the most ancient city still standing in Western Europe. and has been a principal home port of the Spanish Navy since the accession of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century.

Christopher Columbus sailed from Cádiz on his second and fourth voyages and the city later became the home port of the Spanish treasure fleet. Consequently, it became a major target of Spain's enemies. The 16th century saw a series of failed raids by Barbary corsairs; the greater part of the old town was consumed in a major fire in 1569; and in April, 1587, a raid by the Englishman Francis Drake occupied the harbor for three days

In 1596, it was captured by another English fleet, this time under the Earls of Essex and Nottingham. They burned much of it before leaving with their booty. A third English raid was mounted against the city in 1625 by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and Edward Cecil, but the attempt was unsuccessful. During the Anglo-Spanish War, Admiral Robert Blake blockaded Cádiz from 1655 to 1657. In the 1702 Battle of Cádiz, the English attacked again under George Rooke and James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, but they were repelled after a costly siege. More on Cádiz

CLAYS Paul Jean, (1819 - 1900)
"Entrance of the port of Flushing"
Oil on board of mahogany 
51x40.5cm.
Private collection

The maritime history of Vlissingen, Flushing, goes back many centuries. Even in the 13th century the port of Vlissingen had a bustling trade in skins, salt, herring, tar and wool. In the same century Vlissingen was also infamous for its privateering and piracy.

One of the oldest harbours is the 'Voorhaven'. This harbour, dug in the Middle Ages, is still intact and is currently used by the pilot boats. The Nije, Engelse or Vissershaven dates from 1455. Privateering, trade and crafts made Vlissingen a flourishing town in the sixteenth century, while the slave trade too played an important role. The ships of Vlissingen sailed around the world and contributed to the global power of the Seven United Provinces.
The Golden Age was followed by a deep point in Vlissingen's history. During the Napoleonic occupation Vlissingen became a poor and destitute town. At the end of the nineteenth century the situation improved when the Dutch Government decided to dig the canal through Walcheren, build two inner harbours and the outer harbour and construct the railway line between Vlissingen and Bergen op Zoom. More on Flushing

Paul Jean Clays (27 November 1819 – 10 February 1900), Belgian artist, was born at Bruges, and died at Brussels. In 1851 he made his debut at the Paris Salon and, while he tried to stay in the mainstream, his art was heralded by those who were looking for a change to more realism.

In 1852 he moved to Antwerp where he lived from 1852 to 1856; it was during this period that his fortunes began to improve.

In 1856 he and his family moved to Brussels where he became a prolific artist, specializing in scenes along the Scheldt. He exhibited a number of works at the Exposition Universelelle of 1867 and the critic Burger-Thoré described him as one of the greatest marine painters of the time.

In 1868 he became a member of the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts, a society founded to help promote the works of artists who were interested in their individual interpretations of nature. He was a frequent exhibitor at the many exhibition halls in Europe and exhibited many pieces at the Paris Salon. More on Paul Jean Clays

Kovalev, Peter, (Russia, 20th century)
Two-Master in Distress
Oil on canvas
135.0 x 94.5 cm.
Private collection

WILLIAM PIERCE STUBBS, (AMERICAN, 1842-1909) 
THE SCHOONER ALICIA B. CROSBY 
Oil on canvas
26 1/2 x 42 in
Private collection

William Pierce Stubbs (1842–1909) or W.P. Stubbs was a marine painter in the Boston, Massachusetts, area in the 19th century. Examples of his work are in the Bostonian Society; Cape Ann Museum; and Peabody Essex Museum. He also lived in Bucksport, Maine. More on William Pierce Stubbs

Medvey, Heinrich von, (years active 1935 - 1980, Berlin),
Pirates of the Mediterranean Sea, c. 1952
Oil on hardboard
18.0 x 24.0 cm
Private collection

LORENZO GHIGLIERI,  (Oregon, born 1931)
Native American war party in two canoes with sails employed, c. 1976
OIL ON CANVAS 
30" x 40"
Private collection

LORENZO GHIGLIERI,  (Oregon, born 1931), born in America of Italian, French and German immigrants, Lorenzo Ghiglieri grew up in a rich ethnic culture on the fringe of Los Angeles .  After receiving extensive formal training, Lorenzo took it upon himself to study the Old Masters, especially deriving influence from Rembrandt, Velazquez and Corot.  At the age of seventeen, he was honored with a prestigious art scholarship, but was interrupted serving duty on a U.S. destroyer during the Korean War.  He received his first commission as a combat illustrator from the United States Government.  At twenty-two, Lorenzo was working as an illustrator on various national accounts in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles through an international advertising agency.

Lorenzo’s work graces the walls of the most prestigious establishments in the world. His sculptures and paintings have been presented to Pope John Paul II at The Vatican in Rome, President Ronald Reagan at the White House, Mikhail Gorbachev of the Kremlin and King Juan Carlos of the Royal Palace in Madrid. Tiger Woods, Luciano Pavarotti and General Schwartzkopf are a few others who take pride in their ownership of a Lorenzo Ghiglieri sculpture.

In 1994, Lorenzo sculpted the “Official American Bald Eagle” in bronze, silver, and gold, now on display at the White House and part of their permanent collection.  Later, he was commissioned to complete the “Timeline of Liberty,” a historical bronze piece documenting the forefathers of liberty from ancient Greece to modern times.  Lorenzo continues to create the aesthetics of great architecture in modern times. More on LORENZO GHIGLIERI

John Singer Sargent
Girl fishing at San Vigilio, c. 1913
Oil on canvas
49.5 x 71.1 cm. (19.5 x 28 in.)
 Private Collection

Sargent would become increasingly less interested in executing the society portraits for which he was famous and would take refuge in trips to the Alps, Venice and the Mediterranean with members of his family. San Vigilio is a small fishing village on a point at the southern end of Lake Garda in Italy and this painting was executed in 1913 on his last European sojourn before the outbreak of World War I. Sargent would travel with a variety of veils and shawls and the like to dress his "models" on such trips. "The woman in the present painting, possibly Jane de Glehn," More on this painting

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.


His parents were American, but he was trained in Paris prior to moving to London. Sargent enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, although not without controversy and some critical reservation; an early submission to the Paris Salon, his "Portrait of Madame X", was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter, but it resulted in scandal instead. From the beginning his work was characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. He lived most of his life in Europe. More John Singer Sargent


SCHREIBER, PETER CONRAD, 1816 - 1894
Young fisherman on a beach before Capri. 
Oil on canvas. 
66 x 144 cm. 
 Private Collection

Peter Konrad Schreiber (born 11 August 1816 in Fürth , died 17 February 1894 in Nuremberg ) was interested in drawing early on. His father soon encouraged him by means of targeted instruction. He made great strides at the Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts under Albert Christoph Reindel, who discovered the extraordinary talent of Schreiber, and gave the boy a further education in 1835, Academy in Berlin.

Schreiber belonged to the private circle of pupils of Professor Wilhelm Ferdinand Schirmer In Berlin, In 1839 he moved to Rome, where he created numerous landscape imprints and an extensive sketchbook. The impressions of Italy shaped his whole life. 

In 1842 Schreiber returned to Fürth. Starting from the school year 1844/45 , Schreiber becomes "Fachlehrer of the drawing art" at the Latin school at the Egidien-Gymnasium in Nuremberg. In 1847 he was married in second marriage to the Juliane Karoline Elise Krieg (1829-1894). On February 23, 1874 , he stopped drawing because of increasing eye weakness."  However, he continued to paint. His last known and dated work is from 1892. More on Peter Konrad Schreiber 

Maggi Hambling
Wave Breaking (detail), March, 2007
Oil on canvas
122 x 183 cm © The Artist

Maggi Hambling CBE (born 23 October 1945 in Sudbury, Suffolk) is a British contemporary painter and sculptor. Hambling first studied art under at the Amberfield School in Nacton. She then studied at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing from 1960, then at Ipswich School of Art (1962–64), Camberwell (1964–67), and finally the Slade School of Art, graduating in 1969.

In 1995, she was awarded the Jerwood Painting Prize. In the same year she was awarded an OBE for her services to painting, followed by a CBE in 2010. Hambling's celebrated series of North Sea paintings have continued since late 2002.

Portraits form part of Hambling's oeuvre, with several works in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Women feature prominently in her portrait series. Her wider body of work is held in many public collections including the British Museum, Tate Collection, National Gallery, Scottish Gallery of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. More on Maggi Hambling 


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01 Marine Work, GEORGE SAVARY WASSON's USS Brooklyn at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, With Footnotes, #320

GEORGE SAVARY WASSON (American, 1855-1932) USS Brooklyn at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, c. 1901 Oil on canvas 30 x 45 in. Private collect...