01 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #74

Raymond Massey, British/American, b. 1938 

Ferry to Brooklyn, New Amsterdam in 1660, 1981 

Oil on Masonite 

25 7/8 x 42 inches (65.8 x 106.6 cm) 

Private collection

New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The fort was situated on the strategic southern tip of the island of Manhattan and was meant to defend the fur trade operations of the Dutch West India Company in the North River (Hudson River). In 1624, it became a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic and was designated as the capital of the province in 1625.

New Amsterdam was renamed New York on September 8, 1664, in honor of the Duke of York, in whose name the English had captured it. After the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665–1667, England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands agreed to the status quo in the Treaty of Breda. The English kept the island of Manhattan, the Dutch giving up their claim to the town and the rest of the colony, while the English formally abandoned the island of Run in the East Indies to the Dutch, confirming their control of the valuable Spice Islands. Today much of what was once New Amsterdam is New York City. More on New Amsterdam

Born in Newscastle-on-Tyne, England, Raymond A. Massey is a self-taught artist who came to the United States when he was 10 and made his home in Buffalo, New York since the age of 14. A member of the Nautical Research Guild, he was elected an artist member of the American Society of Marine Artists, which was established in 1978 to encourage the preservation and appreciation of maritime history through art. 

Massey’s works have appeared in numerous art shows and galleries from coast-to-coast in the United Stares, and Canada. 

He is also published a number of books, and once wrote about historic Buffalo for the Buffalo Courier Express and illustrated historic Buffalo features in that newspaper. More on Raymond A. Massey 

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