01 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings, Gordon Hope Grant - With Footnotes, #97

Gordon Hope Grant, (American, 1875-1962)

The Tea Clipper 

oil on canvas 

h. 24-1/2 w. 21-1/2 in.

Private collection

A Tea Clipper is a clipper built for tea trade, mainly from China

The boom years of the clipper ship era began in 1843 as a result of a growing demand for a more rapid delivery of tea from China. It continued under the stimulating influence of the discovery of gold in California and Australia in 1848 and 1851, and ended with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the middle third of the 19th century, generally either a schooner or a brigantine. The original Baltimore clippers were schooners. They had multiple types of sail plans but the most common was three masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. Clipper ships were mostly constructed in British and American shipyards, though France, Brazil, the Netherlands and other nations also produced some. Clippers sailed all over the world, primarily on the trade routes between the United Kingdom and its colonies in the east, in trans-Atlantic trade, and on the New York-to-San Francisco route round Cape Horn during the California Gold Rush. Dutch clippers were built beginning in the 1850s for the tea trade and passenger service to Java. More on Clipper Ships

Gordon Hope Grant was a noted American artist, well-known for his maritime watercolors, and his work with the American Boy Scouts. He was born in San Francisco in 1875, and died in 1962.

His best known work is likely his watercolor of the USS Constitution. He also produced war time posters ,illustrations for books, and magazine covers for periodicals.

He was illustrator for The Story of American Sailing Ships by Charles S. Strong, The Scarlet Plague by Jack London, Eternal Sea: An Anthology of Sea Poetry edited by William Martin Williamson and many other works.

He was a member of the Association of American Artists and many of his prints were sold through it. More on Gordon Hope Grant

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