The Coast & the Sea:Marine and Maritime Art in America
Organized by the New-York Historical Society
View of a Seaport
Artist: Unidentified Artist ca 1760
Oil on canvas; 27 x 48 in. New York Historical Society. 1855.1. Gift of John MacGregor
Cleveley was a British marine painter whose view of a small port city is thought to be an image of Harwich in Essex, on the east coast of England. The artist situated his carefully detailed harbor view, shipyard, and sailing vessels within a convincing envelope of coastal weather conditions. These visual conventions had been largely invented in seventeenth-century Holland. Dutch maritime masters in turn founded a British school of marine painting whose influence would be transmitted to England’s colonies in North America.
Marine View
Artist: Thomas Birch 1835
Oil on canvas; 3/4 × 25 × 36 in. New York Historical Society. 1858.13. Gift of The New York Gallery of the Fine Arts
Birch was an early nineteenth-century Philadelphia painter of seascapes. He mastered the Anglo-Dutch manner and is generally recognized as the first American marine specialist. This gifted painter deftly amalgamated the atmospherics and marine vistas identified with marine painting and the attention to nautical detail associated with the maritime tradition. His masterful and romantic "Marine View" demonstrates these skills. The sweeping seascape in the distance under a convincing sky and a foreground is populated by carefully rendered nautical types and maritime paraphernalia.
Elisha Kent Kane, M.D. (1820-1857)
Artist: Thomas Hicks 1858
Oil on canvas; 42 x 51 in.
New York Historical Society. 1859.1. Gift of several ladies of New York
The Northwest Passage, a series of Arctic waterways connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, was sought for centuries by European and American explorers as a possible trade route to Asia. In the 1850s Elisha Kent Kane, a Philadelphia naval surgeon, joined two American Arctic expeditions searching for the British exploring party of Sir John Franklin that had disappeared in 1845. His best-selling memoirs about those perilous expeditions made him a hero, and his premature death in 1857 was widely mourned. This memorial portrait portrays Kane as a thoughtful figure seated before a twilit ocean view. The anchored ship and a globe refer to far-flung voyages, while the table covered with books, charts, and documents signifies Kane’s role as official historian of the expedition.
Stephen Decatur (1779 1820)
Artist: Rembrandt Peale c. 1815-1820
Oil on canvas; 29 x 23 5/8 in. New York Historical Society. 1867.309. Gift of Thomas Jefferson Bryan
The War of 1812 expanded the Revolutionary portrait pantheon, and a new generation of American heroes joined the founding fathers and patriots of the Revolution. Portraits of naval commanders were in demand, as were paintings of their ships and battles. Rembrandt Peale, whose father, Charles Willson Peale, had portrayed the founding fathers, painted a series of naval heroes including Commodore Stephen Decatur. Peale’s romantic bust-length portrait presents the naval hero as both a dashing figure and a commanding martial presence. Gazing into the distance, resplendent in his dress uniform, Decatur is posed in a timeless setting before a stormy sky whose dramatic clouds also evoke the smoke and turbulence of battle.
Captain John Waddell (1714-1762)
Artist: John Wollaston
c. 1750
Oil on canvas; 36 × 28 in.
New York Historical Society. 1891.2. Gift of Edmund B. Southwick
Captain Waddell gazes confidently out of his dignified portrait by Wollaston, a London-trained artist who arrived in 1749 to paint the wealthy merchants of New York. Portrayed at home, bewigged and elegantly dressed, Waddell shares the foreground of his portrait with a large globe toward which he gestures, calling our attention to the far-flung voyages of the ships he had built and owned. His right index finger points to the eastern seaboard of North America. Settling in New York in 1736, he married, prospered, and founded a merchant dynasty in the thriving colonial outpost.
David Abeel (1763-1840)
Artist: Unidentified Artist
c. 1795-1800
Oil on canvas; 30 x 25 in.
New York Historical Society. 1896.53. Gift of George Abeel
Two lively portraits painted around 1800 by unknown artists of modest training portray seafaring American citizens. David Abeel had served as a midshipman on the frigate "Alliance" during the Revolutionary War and later became captain of a merchant vessel. Abeel is shown before a view of the open sea wearing the dark blue coat with gold buttons typical of a ship’s officer. He holds dividers in his right hand while unrolling a chart with his left, as if plotting a course. Behind him sails a three-masted vessel flying an American flag and commissioning pennants.
A marine view and nautical attributes served another unidentified artist as the proper setting to record the handsome features of a young man said to be Captain David Bush, who served in the War of 1812. He wields a mariner’s telescope, or spyglass, while posing before a sprightly seascape to signal maritime enterprises.
Preserved Fish (1766 - 1846)
Artist: Unidentified Artist
c. 1830
Oil on canvas; 41 1/4 × 33 1/4 in.
New York Historical Society. 1900.4. Gift of the Tradesmen's Bank of New York
True to his name, Preserved Fish, who was descended from early New Englanders, found his career on the sea, a memoir of which is included in this attractive, although unattributed portrait of the gray-haired gentleman. By age twenty-one, he had been master of his own whaling ship and soon after established a successful whale oil business in New Bedford, Massachusetts. By 1815 Fish had relocated and was well established as a leading merchant in New York City. He is portrayed seated in a handsomely furnished chamber with the implements of his trade. Holding a telescope with which to watch his many ships coming into New York Harbor, Fish rests his left hand on a marine chart. Through the window is a maritime vista of two ships in pursuit of a spouting whale, a testimonial to the original source of his wealth.
A Southeast Prospect of the City of New York
Artist: Unidentified Artist
c. 1756 - 1761
Oil on canvas, lined to fiberglass; 38 x 72 1/2 in.
New York Historical Society. 1904.1. Gift of Cornelia LeRoy White, in the name of Goldsborough Banyer
"A Southeast Prospect" charts the setting of New York City’s waterfront as well as the busy shipping on the East River. Landmarks include the Battery at the far left and Trinity Church in the center. Tiny figures populate the city and vessels. Most exciting are the magnificent ships anchored in the East River; their presence signals international enterprise as well as the naval might that secured the colonial outpost of New York as part of the British Empire. The bold display of flags and banners flown by this armada also alerts us to the symbolic power of these ships as compelling images of military strength, mercantile prowess, and national patrimony.
Escape of the U.S. Frigate “Constitution,” July 1812
Artist: Thomas Birch
1838
Oil on canvas; 25 1/8 x 35 3/4 in.
New York Historical Society. 1908.5. Bequest of Matilda Wolfe Bruce
The American demand for naval images from the War of 1812 would secure Birch’s reputation as the first homegrown marine specialist. His mastery of the Anglo-Dutch marine tradition was demonstrated in spirited portrayals of successful American naval engagements such as the daring escape of the USS "Constitution" from the British fleet early in the War of 1812. One of the original six frigates that formed the United States Navy and named by George Washington, the "Constitution" encountered a British squadron, which gave chase off the coast of New Jersey. With skillful seamanship, Captain Isaac Hull kept the "Constitution" (seen at the left) ahead of the British for two days, even towing his ship after the breeze died down and eventually escaping with a favorable wind. The "Constitution’s" later battles earned her the nickname “Old Ironsides.”
View from Hyde Park on the Hudson River
Artist: Victor de Grailly
c. 1845
Oil on canvas; 21 1/4 x 28 3/4 in.
New York Historical Society. 1923.5. Museum Purchase
Hyde Park, north of Poughkeepsie, draws its name from one of the riverside estates originally named in honor of Sir Edward Hyde, a royal governor of New York. De Grailly’s picturesque composition, also based on "American Scenery", emphasizes the breadth of the river and the park-like promenade in the foreground and suppresses any sense of the Hudson as a commercial artery. This is in keeping with Hyde Park’s long history as an elegant preserve for the country houses of New York’s oldest elite families. Today, the village is still an important destination as the home of the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site.
Kosciuszko's Monument, West Point
Artist: Victor de Grailly
c. 1845
Oil on canvas; 23 1/4 x 28 3/4 in.
New York Historical Society. 1923.6. Museum Purchase
The Hudson Highlands are the most dramatic passage in the river’s course, forming spectacular vistas that also evoked historical associations. The United States Military Academy at West Point is on the west side, as are the ruins of Fort Putnam, a relic of the Revolutionary War. West Point is still a popular touring destination rich with history made visible, not only in the academy’s architecture and strategic setting on a promontory above the river but also in its many monuments. This detailed view by a French artist whose paintings are based on engravings published in "American Scenery", a best-selling book of the 1840s, records the neoclassical memorial situated high above the river that was dedicated to the Polish patriot Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who served in the Revolutionary army of George Washington.
Steamboat "Cayuga"
Artist: James Bard
1849
Oil on canvas; 29 × 49 1/8 × 1 1/8 in.
New York Historical Society. 1924.113. Museum Purchase
Tourists boarded luxurious steamboats in New York City, stopping along the Hudson River at destinations known for beautiful scenery and historic sites. James Bard, originally in partnership with his twin brother, John, devoted a long and productive career to providing owners with portraits of their steamboats that plied the Hudson and coastal waters. Bard’s attention to detail and proportion was such it has been claimed that shipbuilders swore they could use these paintings to lay down the plans for these so-called floating palaces. Many vessels bore evocative names like the "Cayuga", after a New York State Indian tribe, and offered travelers the combined benefits of comfort and high speed.
Capture of HMS “Macedonian” by the U.S. Frigate “United States,” October 1812
Artist: Unidentified Artist
c. 1813
Oil on canvas; 34 3/8 x 45 1/2 x 7/8 in.
New York Historical Society. 1925.112. Gift of Naval History Society Collection
An unknown artist depended on an engraving after one of Birch’s celebrated battle subjects to record one of the most famous naval exploits of the War of 1812. Early in the war, the British frigate "Macedonian" was captured by the "United States", commanded by Captain Stephen Decatur. The ninety-minute action between the two vessels took place in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles west of the Canary Islands on October 25, 1812. The British prize was transported to Newport, Rhode Island, early in December 1812 and then moved to New York. The "Macedonian" was the first captured British frigate that was taken to the United States; the engagement was a cause for patriotic celebration and commemoration by Birch and others.
Engagement between the U.S. Frigate “Constitution” and HMS “Guerriere” August 1812
Artist: Carlton Theodore Chapman
1895
Oil on canvas; 29 1/4 x 35 1/2 in.
New York Historical Society. 1925.113. The Naval History Society Collection (John Sanford Barnes Foundation)
Chapman’s reputation as the Gilded Age’s “foremost painter” of historic naval vessels and warfare was secured by a commission to provide 21 paintings to illustrate naval historian James Barnes’s popular "Naval Actions of the War of 1812" (1896). The battle shown here was an important American victory early in the War of 1812. The victorious "Constitution", in profile on the horizon, approaches after the battle is over and seems wholly intact but for damaged sails. This encounter would earn the American warship the now-legendary nickname “Old Ironsides.” She towers majestically over the devastated British vessel lying in the middle ground. An American boat approaches at the left to receive the British commander’s surrender.
Engagement Between the U.S. Frigate "Constitution" and H.M.S. "Java" December 1812
Artist: Carlton Theodore Chapman
1896
Oil on canvas; 24 x 36 in.
New York Historical Society. 1925.114. The Naval History Society Collection (John Sanford Barnes Foundation)
These stirring works were inspired by the commemorations surrounding the 1897 centennial of the commissioning of the "Constitution". Long berthed in England, the historic vessel was returned under tow to the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, where she remains. Chapman vividly reimagined the engagement of the "Constitution" and "Java" as a pair of cinematic before-and-after marine paintings. The first installment shows the two-hour battle well under way, with the ships exchanging fire and after the "Java" has already lost two masts. One sail hangs useless and the other trails in the water. Smoke rising from the decks suggests that the "Java" is already aflame. In the second painting, the battle is over. The defeated and destroyed "Java" is burning in the foreground while a rescue operation is carried out before she is sunk. British survivors are being taken to the victorious American frigate, a dramatic silhouette on the horizon poised against a fiery sunset reflected in the waves and echoed in the blazing bulk of the "Java".
Engagement between the U.S. Frigate "Constitution" and H.M.S. "Java", December 1812
Artist: Carlton Theodore Chapman
1897
Oil on canvas; 24 x 36 in.
New York Historical Society. 1925.115. The Naval History Society Collection (John Sanford Barnes Foundation)
These stirring works were inspired by the commemorations surrounding the 1897 centennial of the commissioning of the "Constitution". Long berthed in England, the historic vessel was returned under tow to the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, where she remains. Chapman vividly reimagined the engagement of the "Constitution" and "Java" as a pair of cinematic before-and-after marine paintings. The first installment shows the two-hour battle well under way, with the ships exchanging fire and after the "Java" has already lost two masts. One sail hangs useless and the other trails in the water. Smoke rising from the decks suggests that the "Java" is already aflame. In the second painting, the battle is over. The defeated and destroyed "Java" is burning in the foreground while a rescue operation is carried out before she is sunk. British survivors are being taken to the victorious American frigate, a dramatic silhouette on the horizon poised against a fiery sunset reflected in the waves and echoed in the blazing bulk of the "Java".
Hevlyn Benson (1805-1858)
Attributed to : Lamqua
c. 1840 - 1845
Oil on canvas; 11 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.
New York Historical Society. 1933.2. Gift of Hevlyn D. Benson
The United States established trade relations with China in 1784, when the first American merchant vessel sailed from New York to Canton. This lively commerce generated schools of Chinese artists who provided foreign mariners with images of themselves and their vessels. This small portrait records the features of Hevlyn Benson who, according to family tradition, made many successful voyages to China aboard the "Morrison", one of the fastest ships of her time. The artist may be Lamqua, a prolific painter in the Western style working in Canton; the elaborate frame is also of Chinese production. Benson is portrayed as a well-dressed gentleman at leisure seated before a window. On the table at his left is a mariner’s spyglass; the harbor view beyond shows a ship at anchor, undoubtedly the "Morrison".
New York Harbor
Artist: Edward Moran
c. 1880
Oil on canvas; 18 x 24 in.
New York Historical Society. 1935.71. Museum Purchase
Edward was the equally talented brother of the better-known Thomas Moran. His relish for marine painting is evident in this view looking north toward the Battery in which he captures the bustle of the harbor, as steamships, tugboats, fishing trawlers, and pleasure boats appear to collide in their attempt to share the crowded waters of the upper bay. The smoking tugboat in the foreground tows a pair of lighters or barges, freed of their cargo; drying laundry on one adds a picturesque domestic note. Restless waters churn in the immediate foreground, demonstrating Moran’s acclaimed skill in depicting the mass and motion of these ever-changing reflective surfaces.
Battle of Port Hudson, March 14, 1863
Artist: Julian Oliver Davidson
c. 1886
Oil on canvas; 15 5/8 x 22 in.
New York Historical Society. 1936.801. Gift of the Naval History Society
These two exciting reenactments of Civil War naval engagements were painted by Davidson for a still-famous suite of 18 chromolithographs issued in the later 1880s titled "Prang’s War Pictures". This meticulously painted battle scene documents an episode during the Union campaigns to secure control of the Mississippi River. From fortifications on the steep bluffs beside Port Hudson, Confederate forces fire on the fleet of ships below, commanded by Admiral David Farragut, attempting to run past the batteries under cover of darkness. Our perspective from the high bluffs conveys the confusion and visual drama of a night battle as fiery artillery bursts and smoke obscure much of the river below.