The Case For Modern Marine Art (February/March 1985 | Volume: 36, Issue: 2)

The Case For Modern Marine Art

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February/March 1985 | Volume 36, Issue 2

Most of us find maritime art pleasantly modest, direct, uncomplicated, explicit. It follows no cult, its language is free of the clamor and exclusivity of recent art movements; it undertakes unblushingly the task of pleasing the viewer instead of illustrating the artist’s inner turmoil. It may not always be J. M. W. Turner or Winslow Homer, but it is art nonetheless: it deals with elemental and universal subjects, and in viewing a good example, one sees and feels something more than the literal scene, just as with an Edward Hopper picture of an urban street.

Marine art has had a curious history in America. It experienced a considerable vogue for three-quarters of a century, with the work of artists like Fitz Hugh Lane, Robert Salmon, Thomas Buttersworth, and Antonio Jacobsen. Then it slid into a long decline. Today marine art seems to be enjoying a rebirth. A number of factors have contributed to its revival—certainly the Bicentennial helped, with Operation Sail’s parade in New York Harbor. Nautical museums in New York, Mystic, Salem, Newport News, San Diego, and San Francisco began to receive more attention. Interest and participation in pleasure boating exploded.

But such rebirths are not unusual in the world of art. What is exceptional about marine art is that it has remained virtually unchanged for almost two centuries. Most painters today are still portraying the same subjects in much the same way as Lane and Jacobsen did back in the last century.

Historically, a majority of ship pictures show the vessel broadside to, or almost; viewed from the leeward side under a quartering breeze, the courses (lowest sails) furled to reveal the deck arrangement and some of the rigging; all other canvas set; the ship heeling slightly, to illustrate the sheer; heading in the direction of the sun, which is slightly to leeward so that the forward part of the sail is in full light. That is a reasonable description of a typical ship portrait, whether painted in 1860 or this year.

Still, the best of today’s marine artists are not simply copying nineteenth-century work. Here (above, right) is the Red Cross Line’s recordbreaking Atlantic packet, Dreadnought , recorded by Antonio Jacobsen (18501921), paired (above, left) with the same ship as portrayed by John Stobart, one of the best of today’s marine artists.

Most of Jacobsen’s paintings were done on assignment (he did sixteen of Dreadnought ) for people who had a specific interest in a particular ship. They wanted a portrait , and, as with portraits of people, a ship portrait usually prettied up the vessel with fresh paint and new sails, white and unpatched. Jacobsen’s ship is in sharp focus. Every detail of rigging is shown, although some of it would be indiscernible to normal eyes at the distance depicted. The main course is furled to reveal the deck structures. Viewed from leeward,