homage to the sea - William Vareika Fine Arts

HOMAGE TO THE SEA
Cover: JAMES E. BUTTERSWORTH
(1817-1894)
The Schooner “Triton” and The Sloop “Christine” Racing In Newport Harbor circa 1884
Oil on canvas
12 x 18 inches
Signed, lower right
HOMAGE TO THE SEA
AN EXHIBITION AND SALE OF
18 , 19 & 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN MARINE ART
TO BENEFIT
INTERNATIONAL YACHT RESTORATION SCHOOL (IYRS)
&
MUSEUM OF YACHTING
TH
TH
JULY 11 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2008
WILLIAM VAREIKA FINE ARTS LTD
THE NEWPORT GALLERY OF AMERICAN ART
212 BELLEVUE AVENUE • NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND 02840
WWW.VAREIKAFINEARTS.COM
401-849-6149
There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads
on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in
shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat.
And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
William Shakespeare
Brutus, Julius Caesar
We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea,
whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from
whence we came.
John F. Kennedy
Remarks at the America’s Cup Dinner,
Newport, RI, September 14, 1962
As we enter our twenty-first summer of operation in our Bellevue Avenue gallery, Alison and I are pleased to offer “Homage to the Sea,” a major
exhibition and sale of marine artworks by important 18th, 19th and early 20th century American artists. Continuing our gallery’s two-fold mission to
present museum-quality art to the public and to raise funds and consciousness about important non-profit causes, we are pleased to donate a
percentage of sales from this endeavor to two deserving Newport institutions in the marine field: the Museum of Yachting and the International Yacht
Restoration School (IYRS). This tradition of using excellence in the arts to help subsidize the vital
public service of non-profit organizations has become a defining feature of our gallery and we are
grateful to our friends and clients who have supported us in this mission for two decades. We are also
very appreciative of the public recognition, honors, and awards that we received during the past
twentieth anniversary milestone year, acknowledging our business record and philosophy.
Founded in 1979, the Museum of Yachting has worked for more than twenty-five years to preserve the
culture and heritage of yachting through the presentation of vessels, artifacts, literature, events, and
regattas. The Museum is situated at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. The International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS) was founded in 1993 by Elizabeth Meyer, maritime artist
John Mecray, and a group of restoration enthusiasts, yacht designers, boat builders, and educators.
Located on a historic waterfront site in downtown Newport, it is an accredited, non-profit institution
dedicated to maritime education and preservation. To date, IYRS students have returned nearly 100
historic boats to the water. Currently the storied 1885 schooner yacht “Coronet” is being restored on
the IYRS campus.
A dejected Bill Vareika, his girlfriend Alison and her sixyear-old son Timothy wait patiently for the return to dock
of “Liberty” after losing the seventh and final race of the
America’s Cup, Newport, RI, September 26, 1983.
In May, the Museum of Yachting and IYRS announced the formal merger of their organizations and missions. The Museum of Yachting’s 2008
calendar of events includes an exhibit about the “Grand Voyages of Arthur Curtis James” aboard the “Coronet” and his two “Alohas” that will run
concurrently with the “Coronet” restoration project at IYRS. Recently IYRS launched a $7.5 million capital campaign to restore the 1831 Aquidneck
Mill Building on its site. Restoration of the Aquidneck Mill will transform 30,000 square feet of unoccupied space into new workshops, classrooms,
a library, and an expansive lecture hall. To further their collaboration, the Museum’s Phil Weld Library will be combined with the IYRS student library
to form a research center in the newly restored Aquidneck Mill Building. The new library is planned to open to the public in March, 2009.
Our summer exhibition “Homage to the Sea” includes over 150 paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints and photographs by many of the best known
artists in American history who worked in the marine subject. For three centuries, many of these artists found special creative inspiration in the
transcendent natural beauty and varied societies and cultures that developed in the Newport and Narragansett Bay region, forging one of the nation’s
leading art centers. It is this rich artistic heritage that has been the focus of our gallery. The current exhibition has a wider scope and also includes the
work of American artists who travelled throughout the world in search of artistic stimulation. This catalogue represents a sampling of images from the
exhibition. Included are over two centuries of artistic creations which bestow a diverse, beautiful, and inspiring “Homage to the Sea”: the fishing and
ship building industries; commercial shipping; the sport of yachting; Naval, military and exploration history; historically relevant port scenes and
sublime coastlines; and the grandeur and aesthetic, spiritual and allegorical qualities of the planet’s oceans.
I arrived in Newport in the spring of 1974, immediately following college graduation and before my anticipated law school enrollment. The plan was
to spend the summer months leading a volunteer effort to save an endangered church building decorated by the important 19th century American
artist John La Farge. I had discovered this artist in my one art history course as a prelaw Boston College student and I found that this serendipitous
preservation challenge appealed to the ideals of my youth, my era, my Jesuit education, and my belief in the power of fate. The splendor of the
Narragansett Bay and the allure of Newport’s historical setting, including the rich artistic and maritime heritage, reinforced the attraction. I found
myself responding, as had my predecessors and as President Kennedy expressed, to the sea and its human heritage as a homecoming. Fortunately, the
project to save and restore the La Farge church took years and not months to complete, and in the process I fell in love with a woman, a community
and the vocation of selling fine art. Shakespeare wrote, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” Thirty-four
years later, I am grateful for the full sea of success our venture to establish a gallery of museum-quality art and to support important non-profit causes
has achieved. Our hope is for full success for our current and future projects as well.
Bill Vareika
Newport, Rhode Island
July 4, 2008
ROBERT SALMON
(1775-after 1845)
In spite of the enormous influence he
had on the development of American
marine painting, full details of Robert
Salmon’s career are lacking. Salmon was
born in 1775, inWhitehaven, Cumberland, England. on the Scottish border. He moved to London in the late
1790s and then to Liverpool in 1806.
Salmon lived in the ship-building town
of Greenock on the west coast of Scotland from 1811 to 1822. The detailed
depictions of ships in his paintings reveal an intimate knowledge of ships and
the sea, and reflect the influence of 17th
Century Dutch marine painting. His use
of diminutive, detailed figures is, however, unique to the genre. Salmon is credited with establishing the luminist tradition in American painting, having
strongly influenced William Bradford,
Alfred Thompson Bricher, James
Hamilton, William Haseltine, Martin
Johnson Heade, and Fitz Henry Lane,
among others.
The Hellen of Glasgow in Two Positions in the Mersey off Liverpool, England
Oil on canvas
28 ½ x 45 inches
Initialed, lower right
Salmon emigrated to Boston in
1828, arriving on the packet ship,
“New York.” He established himself
as a painter of marine scenes and
ship portraits. He also painted theatrical scenery and panoramas, including drop curtains for the Federal Street Theatre and a series of
fifteen-foot canvases of naval battles.
For thirteen years, the artist maintained a studio on Marine Railway
Wharf at the bottom of Hanover
Street. It is estimated that he produced about three hundred works
while living in Boston.
Despite great success as a painter,
Salmon resided in a small hut on
the wharves of Boston Harbor. He
left Boston in 1842, following an
auction of his work. It is presumed
he returned to England, for a work
dated 1843 bears an address label
from Liverpool. His last dated works
are Italian scenes done in 1845, after which he seems to have disappeared. There is no record of the
date of his death.
Salmon’s paintings can be found in
galleries and museums throughout
the United States and Great Britain.
Full-Rigged Ships and a Brig off the Coast of England 1808
Oil on canvas
20 x 30 ¾ inches
Initialed and dated, lower right
JOSHUA SHAW
(1776-1860)
Ship at Sea
in a Squall
Oil on canvas
14 x 20 inches
Shipwrecked
Oil on canvas
14 x 20 inches
Landscape painter and inventor, Joshua Shaw was born in Bellingborough, England, around 1776. He studied to be a sign-painter in
Manchester and then established himself as a self-taught portrait, flower,
still life, and landscape painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy in
London. In 1817 he came to America and settled in Philadelphia,
where he became one of the first artists to record topographical views of
American scenery for reproduction. Shaw founded the Artists’ Fund
Society and the Artists and Amateur Association in Philadelphia, and
published a manual for artists. He traveled along the eastern seaboard
and throughout the South, sketching and making watercolors which
were engraved in aquatint by John Hill and published in Philadelphia
in 1819-20 as Picturesque Views of American Scenery. He was among the
earliest pure landscape painters in America, and his style was related to
the 17th-century idealized landscapes of Claude Lorraine showing people
at ease in the countryside. He exhibited widely, at the Pennsylvania
Academy, National Academy, and Brooklyn Art Association. Also an
inventor, Shaw patented improvements for firearms which brought
money from the American and Russian governments. About 1843, he
settled in Bordentown, New Jersey. Shaw became paralyzed in 1853
and died in New Jersey in 1860. His work hangs in the Metropolitan
Museum, Baltimore Museum of Fine Art, Victoria and Albert Museum
in London and many other museums in the US and Britain.
JOHN FREDERICK KENSETT
(1816-1872)
John Frederick Kensett was a leading
member of the second generation of
Hudson River school painters as well
as a noted practitioner of the Luminist
style of 19th century American landscape and marine painting. Kensett
was born in Cheshire, Connecticut,
and received training from his father
in the art of engraving. At the age of
24, Kensett traveled to Europe where
he remained until 1847, moving between London and Paris before visiting Italy in 1845.
Kensett first came to Newport, Rhode
Island in 1854 and continued to visit
the Narragansett Bay region until his
death. By the 1860s Kensett had
reached the height of his career as a
Luminist painter of quiet, atmospheric landscapes and New England
coastal views. Many of Kensett’s finest and most sought-after paintings
were executed along the Newport
shore. He also made many painting
trips to the mountains of New York
and northern New England. He traveled up both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and went to Colorado
to broaden his repertoire of landscape subject matter. Kensett died at
the age of 56 from pneumonia.
Spouting Rock, Newport, RI c. 1865
Oil on canvas
14 x 24 inches
JAMES EDWARD BUTTERSWORTH
(1817-1894)
A Barque and an
American Schooner
off Gibraltar
Oil on canvas
10 x 14 inches
Signed, lower right
Two American 74-Gun Ships
off Brooklyn Navy Yard,
East River, New York
c. 1864-67
Oil on panel
10 x 16 inches
Signed, lower right
Marine artist James Edward Buttersworth was born in
Middlesex County, England. He began his artistic career
in England studying under his father Thomas, himself a
respected marine artist. In 1847 Buttersworth immigrated
to the United States, arriving in New York in the midst of
the Golden Age of sail and steam. He busied himself
chronicling the maritime world of New York Harbor from
the time of his arrival from England until his death in
New Jersey in 1894.
Buttersworth settled in West Hoboken, New Jersey and
from 1850 to 1852 sold his work through the American
Art Union in New York. The artist supplemented his
income from the sale of paintings by working for Currier
and Ives lithographers, providing them with paintings to
be made into prints. Painting from subjects he observed
in the waters off New York, Buttersworth recorded all
types of vessels, from packet ships, steamships, clipper
ships, and naval frigates, to harbor craft and racing yachts.
A consummate draughtsman, he had an eye for meticulous detail and portrayed ships with great accuracy. But
he also achieved a sense of drama with the use of low
horizon lines, stormy skies, and tempestuous seas. His
career spanned sixty years, producing about 600 ship
portraits, comprising a significant contribution to the
preservation of this colorful period in American maritime history. He painted America’s Cup races as well as
warships and historic naval actions, and was particularly
adept at capturing the movement of sailing vessels, frequently portraying them from the diagonal and thus
emphasizing a sense of speed and grace. He applied
paint thinly, primarily in oil, and used a variety of grounds
including canvas, millboard, wood panels, and metal.
The “Volunteer” and “Thistle” Returning from Sandy Hook,
America’s Cup Race 1887
1887
Oil on board
8 x 12 inches
Signed, lower right
Label identifying subject on verso
Yacht Race 1880s
Oil on artist board
9 ¼ x 12¼ inches
Signed, lower right
Inscribed “Valkyrie” on verso
JAMES EDWARD BUTTERSWORTH
(1817-1894)
Yacht Race in Boston Harbor
Oil on canvas
12 x 18 inches
Signed, lower right
Landscape, portrait, and still life painter, poet
and naturalist, Martin Johnson Heade is one of
the most important American Romantic painters
of the 19th Century and one of the major figures
in the development of Luminism. Born in Pennsylvania, he received his first art training around
1838 from local painters Edward and Thomas
Hicks.
MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE
(1819-1904)
In 1858 Heade took a studio in the Tenth Street
Studio building in New York City. He also kept a
studio at times in Providence, Rhode Island,
and in Boston. Heade made painting trips to
Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia, Puerto Rico,
Panama, Jamaica, British Columbia, California
and Florida. During his many travels, the artist
closely observed the local flora and fauna, and
painted both small detailed nature studies, and
large landscapes. Although Heade traveled
throughout the world, the time he spent living
and working in Rhode Island from the late 1850s
to the early 1870s had the greatest impact on his
work. His early landscapes were roughly imitative of the Hudson River School. Inspired, however, by the rich natural beauty and the unusual
qualities of light and atmosphere in the
Narragansett Bay region, Heade began to develop his mature Luminist style.
During the early 1880s Heade resided in New
York and Washington D.C. In 1883 he settled in
St. Augustine, Florida. In St. Augustine, Heade
painted Cherokee roses, orchids, and magnolias,
often depicting the same flower again and again
in various stages of bloom. Heade’s work can be
found in the collections of many major American
museums. He died in St. Augustine in 1904.
Sailing by Moonlight c. 1860-65
Oil on canvas
14 x 22 inches
Signed, lower left
JAMES HAMILTON
(1819-1878)
James Hamilton was born near
Belfast, Ireland, and immigrated
with his family to Philadelphia in
1834. An English patron financed
his education at Mr. Luddington’s
Drawing School. He later enrolled
at the Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts and in addition to
painting, gained skill in engraving and etching. Hamilton obtained a position as a drawing instructor, and the brothers Edward
and Thomas Moran were among
his students.
Hamilton’s work was exhibited at
the Artists’ Fund Society in Philadelphia, 1840-45; Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts, 18471869, 1876-1878, 1880; National
Academy of Design, 1846-1847;
the Mechanics’ Institute, San Francisco, 1876-80; and other galleries in the United States and in
London. Hamilton’s painting of
John Paul Jones’ sea victory, Capture of the Serapie, made him famous at an early age.
Sunset After The Gale 1873
Oil on canvas
30 x 48 inches
Signed, dated and inscribed, Phila, on verso
Hamilton also worked as an illustrator for John Frost’s Pictorial History of
the American Navy (circa 1845) and
later collaborated with Arctic explorer Elisha Kent Kane by providing illustrations for The U.S. Grinnell
Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin
(1853) and Arctic Explorations (1856).
In 1854 Hamilton traveled
to London and remained
there for two years. During this time he was deeply
inf luenced by Joseph
Mallord William Turner
(1775–1851). After returning to the United States,
Hamilton rapidly rose to
being one of the country’s
foremost marine painters.
His mature work was characterized by its loose,
painterly technique, along
with the use of rich color
and dramatic lighting effects. His romantic compositions often include ship
wrecks, naval battles, fires
and storms at sea.
In 1875 Hamilton sold off
the contents of his studio
to finance an intended trip
around the world. He
moved to San Francisco in
1876, joining the San Francisco Art Association and
establishing a studio at 309
California Street where he
began painting the maritime activities of San Francisco Bay. Hamilton died
in San Francisco in 1878.
The U.S.S. “Advance” Trapped in the Ice Floe at Rensellaer Cove 1856
Oil on canvas
20 x 30 inches
Signed and dated, lower right
WILLIAM BRADFORD
(1823-1892)
William Bradford, a marine painter of the 19th century, was celebrated
on both sides of the Atlantic for his arctic scenes. Born a Quaker, in 1823,
in Fairhaven, Massachusetts near New Bedford, Bradford liked art from
an early age, but was educated more practically in business. Since he
lived in a seaport town, ships were available subjects. Bradford painted
many of them, selling the ship portraits and earning a good income. His
paintings were so popular that Queen Victoria purchased one in 1873.
Bradford extended his studies of ships to views of shore and sea, visiting
picturesque regions along the North Atlantic coastline. He is known for
his remarkably accurate representations of coastal scenes in New England, Nova Scotia and Labrador.
During several trips to Labrador, including exploratory polar expeditions, Bradford photographed and made original studies of this frozen
world.
Bradford’s art can be found in numerous museums and private collections
throughout the world. In 2003 the New Bedford Whaling Museum presented a major exhibition of Bradford’s art and published a 178-page book
to accompany the exhibition, authored by Richard Kugler.
The Mary Jane of Eastport, Maine 1863
Oil on canvas
26 x 21¾ inches
Signed and dated, lower right
New Bedford from Fairhaven at Night
Oil on paper
12 ½ x 17 ½ inches
Signed and inscribed with title on backing board
WILLIAM BRADFORD
(1823-1892)
Seascape
Seascape with Sailboat
Oil on board
11 ½ x 18 ¼ inches
Signed, lower right
Oil on board
6 ¼ x 14 ¾ inches
Labrador Coastal View
Oil on board
13 ¾ x 21 inches
Signed, lower right
Rocky Shore c. 1860
Signed, lower right
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
13 ½ x 19 inches
Signed, lower right
WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS
(1833-1905)
William Trost Richards is one of the most important American landscape
and marine painters of the 19th century and one of the many artists who
found special inspiration in the natural environment around Newport.
He was born in Philadelphia, and studied at an early age with the
artist Paul Weber. In 1853 Richards went to Europe and studied in
Paris, Florence, and Rome. He returned to Europe several years later
to study in Dusseldorf, where he was influenced by the precisionist
German draughtsmen. He also became intrigued by the work of the
Pre-Raphaelite School, with their attention to detail, particularly with
regard to elements of the landscape.
Throughout the 1860s, Richards painted primarily along the Hudson
River, particularly in the Adirondacks, and around Philadelphia. In
the early 1870s, Richards began to paint along the New Jersey coast
and in the Narragansett Bay region. He first summered in Newport in
1874 and purchased a home on Gibbs Avenue in 1875. He continued
to paint in Newport and Jamestown for the rest of his life, dividing his
time between his farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Newport,
Europe, and England. Richards is best known for the artworks he
created in Rhode Island, inspired by the sublime natural beauty of
the Narragansett Bay and its sandy beaches and rocky shoreline. In
1882 he built a large cliff-top home at “Gray Cliff” on Conanicut
Island overlooking the Bay. Richards died in Newport in 1905.
Richards work has been the subject of a number of important museum exhibitions: St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts (1907); Art Association of Newport (1954, 1976); Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
(1956, 1973); Brooklyn Museum (1973); The New Britain Museum
of American Art (1973); Metropolitan Museum of Art (1982-83);
Hudson River Museum (1986); Brandywine River Museum (2001);
and The Adirondack Museum (2002). A major Richards exhibition is
planned for the Brandywine River Museum for 2011.
Bringing in the Boat c. 1875
Watercolor and gouache on paper
6 ¾ x 13 ¼ inches
Provenance: Family of the artist
ANNA RICHARDS BREWSTER
(1870-1952)
Portrait of William Trost Richards 1898
(Painted by his daughter)
Oil on board
15 x 10 ½ inches
WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS
(1833-1905)
Isle of Skye
Oil on canvas
1894
40 x 68 inches
Signed and dated, lower right
Grey Cliff, Conanicut Island, Rhode Island (site of the artist’s home)
Oil on panel
8 ¾ x 16 inches
British Coastal View
Oil on canvas on board
Signed, lower right
8 ¾ x 15 ½ inches
Bon Repose Bay, Guernsey
Oil on board
9 x 16 inches
Signed, lower right
British Coastal View
Signed, lower left
Oil on canvas on board
9 x 16 inches
Signed, lower left
EDMUND DARCH LEWIS
(1835-1910)
Edmund Darch Lewis was born in Philadelphia, where at the age of fifteen he
studied with Paul Weber, who also taught Edward Moran, William Trost Richards,
and William Haseltine. Lewis became one of the most popular landscape
painters in Philadelphia during the late 19th Century. His early works, chiefly
scenes of the Lehigh, Susquehana, and Schuylkill Rivers and Wissahickon
Creek of Pennsylvania, were in great demand. He exhibited his work at the
National Academy of Design, the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, and the
Boston Athenaeum. Wealthy and admired, he entertained in a grand style in his
opulent Philadelphia home, surrounded by an extensive collection of antique
furniture, china and decorative arts.
Harbor Scene 1885
9 ½ x 19 ½ inches
Watercolor and gouache on paper
Signed and dated, lower right
Like many Philadelphians, Lewis often spent his summers in Rhode Island. As
a result, the Narragansett Bay and its coastline inspired many of his most widely
acclaimed marine scenes. By the mid 1870s, he had turned increasingly to
watercolor shoreline views of yachting from Cape May, New Jersey to Narragansett
and Newport, Rhode Island.
The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of
the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and
healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is
never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all
sides.
Moon Rise 1882
9 x 20 inches
Watercolor and gouache on paper
Signed and dated, lower right
Jules Verne
WILLIAM STANLEY HASELTINE
(1835-1900)
Marine and landscape painter William
Stanley Haseltine, like his contemporary, William Trost Richards, studied
German draftsmanship in Dusseldorf
and was influenced by the writings of
John Ruskin and Charles Darwin.
Haseltine spent several years touring
Europe with a group of American artists. Upon his return to New York in
1859, he established a studio in the
Studio Building on Tenth Street, where
many landscape painters worked. With
New York as his base, Haseltine made
excursions throughout New England,
where the Narragansett Bay was one of
his favorite sites. Haseltine and his family moved to Europe, eventually settling
in Rome. Haseltine’s painting reveals
the international spirit of a life largely
spent abroad. The artist found himself
especially attracted to the enchanting
scenery of Capri. His paintings were
exhibited at the 1867 and 1868 Paris
Salon; the 1871 benefit exhibition for
the American Church in Rome; the
1874 Century and Lotus Club Exhibitions; the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia; the 1879 Munich International Exposition; and the 1883 Roman Internationale Exposition.
Haseltine’s works are found in numerous private and public collections. He
died in Rome in 1900.
Rocky Coast, Capri
1874
Oil on canvas
25 ½ x 39 ½ inches
Signed with monogram and dated, lower right
FRANCIS AUGUSTUS SILVA
(1835-1886)
Born in New York in 1835, Francis Augustus
Silva was a second generation Hudson River
School artist, who did much painting along
the Hudson River and along the coastline
from Chesapeake Bay to Cape Ann, Massachusetts. His earliest known painting is titled
Cape Ann.
Silva was the son of a barber who had emigrated from Madeira to New York in 1830.
He showed early art talent as a schoolboy
exhibiting pen drawings at the American
Institute. With no apparent formal training,
he apprenticed to a sign painter in New
York and decorated fire wagons, vans, and
stagecoaches.
A Foggy Day off Boston, Massachusetts 1871
Oil on canvas
9 x 18 inches
Signed and dated, lower right
Nature is the glass reflecting God, as by the sea reflected is the
sun, too glorious to be gazed on in his sphere.
Brigham Young
In 1861, he enlisted in a New York militia
and became a Captain of the Ninth New
York Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. He
was stricken with malaria, and, wrongfully
accused of desertion, received a dishonorable discharge. He applied for reinstatement,
which was granted, and then received an
honorable discharge.
Silva taught himself painting and became
one of the leading 19th Century marine painters in the Luminist style, especially known
for his brilliant sunsets. By 1865 he had
begun his career as a fine artist, and in 1868
made his debut at the National Academy of
Design’s annual exhibition.
By 1870 Silva had developed a remarkably
skillful technique and a repertoire of marine subjects and atmospheric effects that
varied little for the rest of his life. Silva
maintained his studio in New York, but
moved to New Jersey in 1880. He died in
1886.
Robbin’s Reef Lighthouse off Tompkinsville, New York Harbor c. 1878-86
Oil on canvas
Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither.
William Wordsworth
9 x 18 inches
Signed, lower right
ALFRED THOMPSON BRICHER
(1837-1908)
Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1837, Alfred Thompson Bricher
was known principally for his oil and watercolor paintings of the New
England coastline. One of the last great Luminist artists, Bricher brought
to a close the cult of nature painting that had begun with Thomas Cole
and been carried on for the next four decades by such painters as
Worthington Whittredge, John Frederick Kensett, Martin Johnson Heade,
Sanford Robinson Gifford, and William Trost Richards.
Bricher moved to Boston as a young man seeking employment; he worked
as a clerk at a mercantile house while painting part-time. Though he was
largely self-taught, he may have studied at the Academy of Newburyport,
Massachusetts and at the Lowell Institute. In 1858, he began painting fulltime and for the next ten years worked primarily in the White Mountains,
Boston, and Newburyport.
In 1868, Bricher moved to New York City. He was elected a member of the
American Watercolor Society in 1873 and Associate Member of the National Academy in 1879. Every summer he traveled along the coasts of
Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Long Island, making sketches
from which he would paint in the winter. In 1890 he built a home in New
Dorp, Staten Island, where he lived until his death in 1908.
Today, Bricher’s work can be found in many private and public collections
throughout the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York City; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco; Butler Institute of American Art, Ohio; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Oil on canvas
Morning at Grand Manan
24 x 20 inches
Signed, lower right
Maine Coastal View
Oil on canvas
17 x 36 inches
Signed, lower left
I find myself at the extremity of a long beach. How gladly does the spirit leap forth, and suddenly enlarge its sense of
being to the full extent of the broad, blue, sunny deep! A greeting and a homage to the Sea! I descend over its margin, and
dip my hand into the wave that meets me, and bathe my brow. That far-resounding roar is the Ocean’s voice of welcome.
His salt breath brings a blessing along with it.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
ALFRED THOMPSON BRICHER
(1837-1908)
Grand Manan Island
Oil on canvas
15 x 33 inches
Signed, lower right
Others will enter the gates of the ferry
and cross from shore to shore,
Others will watch the run of the flood-tide,
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan
north and west,
and the heights of Brooklyn
to the south and east,
Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross,
the sun half an hour high,
A hundred years hence,
or ever so many hundred years hence,
others will see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide,
the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide.
Walt Whitman
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
New York Harbor with the Brooklyn Bridge
Under Construction 1877
Oil on canvas
27 x 23 inches
Signed and dated, lower left
CHARLES HENRY GIFFORD
(1839-1904)
Charles Henry Gifford, the son of a ship’s carpenter, was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Gifford
grew up during the age of the whaling industry,
the capital of which was New Bedford, Massachusetts. Gifford fought in the Civil War, spending
time as a prisoner of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia. After the war, upon his return to
Massachusetts, Gifford took up painting, and in
1868 opened a studio on William Street in New
Bedford. Mainly self-taught, Gifford was influenced
by the numerous artists in the New Bedford area,
such as Albert Bierstadt, William Bradford, and
Robert Swain Gifford (no relation). The wealth
that whaling brought to New Bedford meant income for the captains of industry to spend on fine
art, causing artists to flock to the city. Painting in
the luminist style, Gifford made a living selling his
“little gems,” as he called his typical paintings. His
large paintings are very rare.
Racing on Buzzards Bay
Oil on canvas
18 ½ x 34 ½ inches
Signed, lower right
Apart from one trip to London, Scotland and Ireland in 1879, Gifford continued to live mainly in
the New Bedford-Fairhaven region. He painted
primarily along the New England coast, including
the Elizabeth Islands and Nantucket, and occasionally inland at Lake George, Niagara Falls, and
the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After
1889, he worked primarily in watercolor.
His work has been exhibited at the Buffalo Fine
Arts Academy, Chicago Industrial Expo of 1875,
William & Everett Gallery, Boston, and the B.W.
Pierce Gallery in New Bedford.
LEMUEL D. ELDRED
(1848-1921)
Landscape painter and etcher, Lemuel
D. Eldred was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts in 1848. His teachers included William Mosher, Caleb
Purrington and William Bradford. He
worked with his friend and teacher
Bradford in Fairhaven and New York,
and then began his own career in Boston. He furthered his studies in Europe
between 1880 and 1883, studying at
the Académie Julian in Paris. By 1900
he began etching. He spent his later
years in Boston and at Bradford’s old
studio in Fairhaven. Exhibitions of his
work included the National Academy
in 1876; the Boston Art Club, 18761886; the New Bedford Art Club in
1920; and several other galleries in Boston and New Bedford throughout his
career. He died in 1921.
Fairhaven Harbor 1893
Oil on canvas
16 x 28 inches
Signed and dated, lower left
ANTONIO JACOBSEN
(1850-1921)
Anna R. Heidritter 1910
Oil on board
27 x 42 inches
Signed and dated, lower right
Antonio Nicolo Gaspara Jacobsen, foremost chronicler of American shipping
in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, painted ships as they passed in
and out of New York Harbor and out of
the age of sail into the age of steam.
Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen,
Denmark in 1850, but came to New
York City in 1871 to avoid being drafted
into the Franco-Prussian War. Like many
immigrants, he spent his days in Battery Park looking for work, and would
pause to sketch the ships in the harbor.
From 1871 to 1880 he worked decorating the doors to safes for Marvin Safe
Company. In 1880 he moved to West
Hoboken, New Jersey, where he produced most of his work. Jacobsen began to receive commissions from ship
owners and captains, and eventually
steamship companies. The Old Dominion, Fall River, and White Star Steamship Lines, among others, commissioned
him to create portraits of all the vessels
in their fleets. Thus, Jacobsen quickly
became one of America’s premier marine artists. With the help of his children, Jacobsen painted over 6,000 ships
that came into New York City Harbor
between 1894 and 1919. Jacobsen died
in West Hoboken in 1921.
The Steamship “Knickerbocker” 1892
Oil on canvas
22 x 36 inches
Signed and dated, lower right
JAMES GALE TYLER
(1855-1931)
James Gale Tyler, marine painter and illustrator, was born
in Oswego, New York in 1855. Mainly self-taught, Tyler
studied briefly with marine artist Archibald C. Smith in New
York City in 1870. He maintained studios in New York City
from 1882 through 1899, but also had studios in Providence, Rhode Island in the mid-1880s and in Greenwich,
Connecticut from the mid-1870s until his death in 1931.
Beginning with 1900, Tyler painted every America’s Cup
race. His illustrations of ships sailing off Newport were reproduced in Literary Digest, Harper’s and Century magazines.
In 1930, at age seventy-five, Tyler covered his last America’s
Cup, producing paintings of the “Shamrock” and “Enterprise” racing off Newport that were exhibited at the Union
League Club of New York. His marine paintings were so
popular that forgeries were made during his lifetime.
He was a member of the Brooklyn Art Club; the Salmagundi
Club; Artists Fund Society and the Greenwich Society of
Artists. He exhibited at the National Academy; the Providence Art Club; Boston Art Club; Brooklyn Art Association;
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Art Institute of Chicago; and the Society of Independent Artists. His work is
represented in such collections as the Chicago Galleries
Association; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Tokyo
Museum; the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT; Omaha
Museum of Art, Nebraska; Mariner’s Museum, Newport
News, Virginia; and the New York Historical Society, New
York City.
Tug, H. A. Crawford
Signed, lower left
Oil on canvas
27 x 34 inches
Inscribed “Oswego,” lower left
WARREN SHEPPARD
(1858-1937)
Marine painter, illustrator, and writer, Warren Sheppard was born in
Greenwich, New Jersey in 1858. Sheppard studied painting with Mauritz
De Haas in New York, and in Europe, producing well-received canal
scenes of Venice. Sheppard was also a designer and navigator of
racing yachts and he sailed widely along the New England coast, once
winning the famous New York-to-Bermuda race. He authored and
illustrated the books, Practical Navigation and A Tale of the Sea. Sheppard
lived in Brooklyn and summered in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, and on
the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire. He exhibited at the Brooklyn Art
Association from 1874 to 1881; the National Academy of Design in
New York from 1880 to 1899; the Denver Exposition in 1884, where
he won a gold medal; the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis
in 1904; and the Pennsylvania Academy. He died in 1937. His work
can be viewed today at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo; the
Toledo Art Museum; the Public Library in Springfield, Massachusetts;
the India House in New York; the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut; and the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.
The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own
lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless
when it labours hardest, so noisy and impatient
when least effective.
Henry David Thoreau
Rounding the Mark
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 inches
Signed, lower right
WORDEN WOOD
(1880-1943)
Worden G. Wood, marine artist and illustrator, was born in Brooklyn, New
York in 1880. He attended Trinity School and Columbia University and became
a member of the art staff of the New York World. Later on, Wood covered yachting
events and served as an art director for the Boston Globe.
In 1898 Wood joined the United States Naval Reserve at the outbreak of the
Spanish-American War. He served as Seaman with the 1st Battalion of the New
York Volunteer Naval Militia on the U.S.S. “Yankee” from April 28-September 2,
1898. He later took part under General John J. Pershing in the campaign following the Villa raid on Columbus, New Mexico in 1916. On April 7, 1917 he
became chief boatswain’s mate in the United States Navy. Wood’s grandfather,
John Lorimer Worden, was commander of the U.S.S. “Monitor” in the famous
battle of the ironclads with the Confederacy’s “Merrimac” at Hampton Roads,
Virginia, March 8-9, 1862.
Wood was a marine illustrator for many firms, including the United States
Lines, the French Line, the MacMillan Company, and the former United States
Shipping Board.
Brigantine “Polly” of Newburyport Taken By Algerine Pirates, 1793
1929
Watercolor and gouache on board
12 ½ x 18 inches
Signed and dated, lower left
It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the
day, that without a decisive naval force we can do
nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable
and glorious.
President George Washington
to Marquis de Lafayette
15 November 1781
The U.S.S. “Constitution” Defeats HMS “Guerriere,”
Earning the Nickname “Old Ironsides,” August 19, 1812
1921
Watercolor and gouache on board
12 ½ x 18 inches
Signed and dated, lower left
The C.S.S. “Virginia”
(formerly U.S.S “Merrimac” and known to history as the “Merrimac”)
Sinking the Twenty-four Gun Woodenhulled Steam-Sailing
Sloop “Cumberland” at Hampton Roads, Virginia, March 8, 1862
1929
Watercolor and gouache on board
12 ½ x 18 inches
Signed and dated, lower left
RICHARD HAYLEY LEVER
(1876-1958)
Painter Hayley Lever was born in South Australia in
1876 and studied in Australia, Paris, and London. He is
best known as a Post-Impressionist painter of marine
scenes. In 1899 Lever settled in St. Ives on the Cornish
coast of England where he began to paint impressionistic seacoast paintings. Lever traveled and painted
throughout Europe, especially France, in places such as
Concarneau, Dieppe, and Honfleur, and became inspired by the Post-Impressionist paintings of Vincent
van Gogh. In 1904 he exhibited for the first time at the
Royal Academy.
In 1911 Lever emigrated to the United States where his
St. Ives pictures were favorably received by the American critics. After 1912 Lever began to paint street and
waterfront scenes of Manhattan, and from 1919 to 1931
he taught at the New York Art Students League. During
the Depression he relocated to Mt. Vernon, New York
and became Director of the Studio Art Club there. He
had a summer studio in Gloucester, Massachusetts on
Cape Ann, where he found a picturesque equivalent to
the fishing and harbor scenes of St. Ives. In the summer
of 1927, Lever returned to St. Ives during a trip to
France. In 1940 he traveled to Nova Scotia and Grand
Manan Island, Canada. As his career progressed, his
palette grew bolder and more vivid, and his style more
expressionistic. He continued to paint marine subjects,
but later turned to still lifes. Lever’s work was exhibited
widely across the U. S. and abroad, winning many prizes
and awards. Lever’s paintings are held in collections
throughout the United States and Australia.
Boston Yacht Club, Marblehead
Oil on canvas
10 x 12 inches
Signed, lower right
ALBION HARRIS BICKNELL
(1837-1915)
Painter, engraver and etcher, Albion
Harris Bicknell, best known for his portraits and historical subjects, also painted
still lifes and landscapes. Bicknell was
born in Maine in 1837. He studied at
the Lowell Institute in Boston around
1855, and also at the Ecole des BeauxArts in Paris under Thomas Couture
from about 1860 to 1862. In 1864
Bicknell established a studio in Boston
and began exhibiting his work annually
at the Boston Athenaeum. Bicknell was
a member of the artistic fraternity of the
Boston area that included William Morris Hunt, Elihu Vedder, Joseph Foxcroft
Cole and John La Farge, all of whom
were his close friends. In the 1860s and
early 1870s Bicknell painted some of
the nation’s most distinguished citizens.
About 1875, suffering from a serious
illness, Bicknell moved to Malden, outside of Boston, and lived there as an
invalid for nearly twelve years before he
regained his health. He continued to
paint throughout this period, and also
experimented with monotypes, and produced etchings and illustrations. His
monotypes were shown at the J. Eastman
Chase Gallery in Boston, and at the
Union League Club and National Academy of Design in New York. In 1895
Bicknell turned to watercolors. He died
in Malden in 1915.
Crane’s Beach, Ipswich, Massachusetts
Oil on canvas
13 ¾ x 21 ¾ inches
Signed, lower left
WILLIAM LAMB PICKNELL
(1853-1897)
William Lamb Picknell was born in Vermont in 1853. The young Picknell was
determined upon a career in art, despite
his family’s discouragement. Greatly inspired by George Inness, Picknell left for
Rome where Inness was working at the
time. After studying with this Barbizon-style
American painter and spending two years
in Italy, Picknell moved on to Paris where
he studied under the 19th century French
master, Jean-Leon Gerome at the Ecole des
Beaux Arts, and also with Robert Wylie.
From 1873 on, Picknell was largely an expatriate itinerant painter, living in artist
colonies throughout France, traveling from
North to South with the seasons. The landscape and light of France inspired his painting en plein air. Picknell was so devoted to
capturing nature directly that he painted
from within a glass-sided shed during the
cold winter months. He developed a keen,
sensitive eye for the nuances of nature and
achieved the ability to represent the visual
effects of light and the sensation of warmth
in his paintings. Picknell’s work was exhibited frequently in Paris and in the United
States. He died in 1897 at the age of fortyfour. His paintings are represented in the
collections of major French, English, and
American galleries and museums.
Le Declin du Jour (Fort Carre, Antibes, France) c.1895
Oil on canvas
36 x 54 inches
Signed, lower left
FRANK CONVERS MATHEWSON
(1862-1941)
Frank Convers Mathewson was born in Barrington, Rhode
Island in 1862. He studied in Paris at the Académie Julian
with Jean Paul Laurens, and at the National School of
Decorative Art. He also studied painting in Italy with Frank
Vincent DuMond. He had a studio for a time in Munich,
which he shared with Stacy Tolman, and painted for many
years in New York City. Mathewson is known for his landscapes, florals, and marine paintings. Mathewson was a
member of the New York Watercolor Club, Providence
Art Club, Providence Watercolor Club, American Watercolor Society, South County Art Association, and the North
Shore Art Association. His work was exhibited nationally
at the Boston Art Club, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others, and
abroad, in Paris and in Turin, Italy, and is represented in
the collections of the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence Art Club, Providence University Club, Boston Art
Club, and South County Rhode Island Art Association.
Mathewson diedin 1944.
The cure for anything is salt water
— sweat, tears, or the sea.
Isak Dinesen
Boat Yard 1899
Oil on canvas
16 x 20 inches
Signed and dated, lower right
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an
acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any
thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain
die a dry death.
William Shakespeare
Gonzalo, The Tempest
AMERICAN SCHOOL
(Late 19th - Early 20th Century)
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea
for an acre of barren ground c.1900
Watercolor on paper
10 ¼ x 7 ¾ inches
Tempest quote inscribed on bottom of matting
WILLIAM VAREIKA FINE ARTS LTD
212 BELLEVUE AVENUE • NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND 02840
WWW.VAREIKAFINEARTS.COM • [email protected]
401-849-6149