HOMAGE to the SEA Cover: JAMES E

Home , Alfred Thompson Bricher, Edmund Darch Lewis, Elihu Vedder, Robert Swain Gifford, William Trost Richards

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 18TH, 19TH & 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN MARINE ART TO BENEFIT INTERNATIONAL YACHT RESTORATION SCHOOL (IYRS) & MUSEUM OF YACHTING

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 We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. whence we came. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. John F. Kennedy William Shakespeare Remarks at the America’s Cup Dinner, Brutus, Julius Caesar 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 Interna- tional 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 A dejected Bill Vareika, his girlfriend Alison and her six- historic boats to the water. Currently the storied 1885 schooner yacht “Coronet” is being restored on year-old son Timothy wait patiently for the return to dock the IYRS campus. 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, Cum- berland, England. on the Scottish bor- der. 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 Scot- land from 1811 to 1822. The detailed depictions of ships in his paintings re- veal 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, how- ever, unique to the genre. Salmon is cred- ited 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 the- atrical scenery and panoramas, including drop curtains for the Fed- eral 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 disap- peared. There is no record of the date of his death.

Salmon’s paintings can be found in galleries and museums throughout Full-Rigged Ships and a Brig off the Coast of England 1808 the United States and Great Britain. Oil on canvas 20 x 30 ¾ inches Initialed and dated, lower right JOSHUA SHAW (1776-1860)

Landscape painter and inventor, Joshua Shaw was born in Belling- borough, 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 Ship at Sea were engraved in aquatint by John Hill and published in Philadelphia in 1819-20 as Picturesque Views of American Scenery. He was among the in a Squall earliest pure landscape painters in America, and his style was related to Oil on canvas the 17th-century idealized landscapes of Claude Lorraine showing people 14 x 20 inches 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.

Shipwrecked Oil on canvas 14 x 20 inches 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 fin- est 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 Mis- sissippi Rivers and went to Colorado Spouting Rock, Newport, RI c. 1865 Oil on canvas 14 x 24 inches to broaden his repertoire of landscape subject matter. Kensett died at the age of 56 from pneumonia. JAMES EDWARD BUTTERSWORTH (1817-1894)

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. A Barque and an American Schooner Buttersworth settled in West Hoboken, New Jersey and from 1850 to 1852 sold his work through the American off Gibraltar Art Union in New York. The artist supplemented his Oil on canvas income from the sale of paintings by working for Currier 10 x 14 inches and Ives lithographers, providing them with paintings to be made into prints. Painting from subjects he observed Signed, lower right 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 meticu- lous 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 Two American 74-Gun Ships preservation of this colorful period in American mari- off Brooklyn Navy Yard, time history. He painted America’s Cup races as well as East River, New York warships and historic naval actions, and was particularly adept at capturing the movement of sailing vessels, fre- c. 1864-67 quently portraying them from the diagonal and thus Oil on panel emphasizing a sense of speed and grace. He applied 10 x 16 inches paint thinly, primarily in oil, and used a variety of grounds Signed, lower right including canvas, millboard, wood panels, and metal. The “Volunteer” and “Thistle” Returning from Sandy Hook, America’s Cup Race 1887 1887 Yacht Race 1880s Oil on board Oil on artist board 8 x 12 inches 9 ¼ x 12¼ inches Signed, lower right Signed, lower right Label identifying subject on verso 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 MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE and naturalist, Martin Johnson Heade is one of the most important American Romantic painters (1819-1904) of the 19th Century and one of the major figures in the development of Luminism. Born in Penn- sylvania, he received his first art training around 1838 from local painters Edward and Thomas Hicks.

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 imita- tive of the Hudson River School. Inspired, how- ever, by the rich natural beauty and the unusual qualities of light and atmosphere in the Narragansett Bay region, Heade began to de- velop 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 Sailing by Moonlight c. 1860-65 painted Cherokee roses, orchids, and magnolias, Oil on canvas 14 x 22 inches Signed, lower left 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. JAMES HAMILTON James Hamilton was born near Belfast, Ireland, and immigrated (1819-1878) 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 ob- tained a position as a drawing in- structor, and the brothers Edward and Thomas Moran were among his students.

Hamilton’s work was exhibited at the Artists’ Fund Society in Phila- delphia, 1840-45; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1847- 1869, 1876-1878, 1880; National Academy of Design, 1846-1847; the Mechanics’ Institute, San Fran- cisco, 1876-80; and other galleries in the United States and in London. Hamilton’s painting of John Paul Jones’ sea victory, Cap- ture of the Serapie, made him famous at an early age.

Hamilton also worked as an illustrator for John Frost’s Pictorial History of the American Navy (circa 1845) and later collaborated with Arctic ex- Sunset After The Gale 1873 plorer Elisha Kent Kane by providing illustrations for The U.S. Grinnell Oil on canvas 30 x 48 inches Signed, dated and inscribed, Phila, on verso Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin (1853) and Arctic Explorations (1856). In 1854 Hamilton traveled to London and remained there for two years. Dur- ing this time he was deeply influenced 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 char- acterized by its loose, painterly technique, along with the use of rich color and dramatic lighting effects. His romantic compo- sitions 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 Fran- cisco Art Association and establishing a studio at 309 California Street where he began painting the maritime activities of San Fran- cisco 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 En- gland, Nova Scotia and Labrador.

During several trips to Labrador, including exploratory polar expedi- tions, 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 pre- sented 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 with Sailboat Seascape Oil on board 11 ½ x 18 ¼ inches Signed, lower right Oil on board 6 ¼ x 14 ¾ inches Signed, lower right

Labrador Coastal View Rocky Shore c. 1860 Oil on board 13 ¾ x 21 inches 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 Bringing in the Boat c. 1875 and in the Narragansett Bay region. He first summered in Newport in Watercolor and gouache on paper 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 6 ¾ x 13 ¼ inches time between his farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Newport, Provenance: Family of the artist 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 mu- ANNA RICHARDS BREWSTER seum exhibitions: St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts (1907); Art Associa- tion of Newport (1954, 1976); Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1870-1952) (1956, 1973); Brooklyn Museum (1973); The New Britain Museum Portrait of William Trost Richards 1898 of American Art (1973); Metropolitan Museum of Art (1982-83); (Painted by his daughter) Hudson River Museum (1986); Brandywine River Museum (2001); and The Adirondack Museum (2002). A major Richards exhibition is Oil on board planned for the Brandywine River Museum for 2011. 15 x 10 ½ inches WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS (1833-1905)

Isle of Skye 1894 Oil on canvas 40 x 68 inches Signed and dated, lower right Grey Cliff, Conanicut Island, Rhode Island (site of the artist’s home) Bon Repose Bay, Guernsey Oil on panel 8 ¾ x 16 inches Signed, lower right Oil on board 9 x 16 inches Signed, lower right

British Coastal View British Coastal View Oil on canvas on board 8 ¾ x 15 ½ inches 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.

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 Harbor Scene 1885 Watercolor and gouache on paper and Newport, Rhode Island. 9 ½ x 19 ½ inches Signed and dated, lower right

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. Jules Verne Moon Rise 1882 Watercolor and gouache on paper 9 x 20 inches Signed and dated, lower right WILLIAM STANLEY HASELTINE (1835-1900)

Marine and landscape painter William Stanley Haseltine, like his contempo- rary, 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 Exhibi- tions; the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia; the 1879 Munich Inter- national Exposition; and the 1883 Ro- man Internationale Exposition. Haseltine’s works are found in numer- Rocky Coast, Capri 1874 Oil on canvas 25 ½ x 39 ½ inches ous private and public collections. He died in Rome in 1900. 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, Massa- chusetts. 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.

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 A Foggy Day off Boston, Massachusetts 1871 accused of desertion, received a dishonor- Oil on canvas 9 x 18 inches Signed and dated, lower right able discharge. He applied for reinstatement, which was granted, and then received an honorable discharge.

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 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 9 x 18 inches Signed, lower right

Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither. William Wordsworth 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 full- time 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 Na- tional 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 Fran- cisco; Butler Institute of American Art, Ohio; and the Smithsonian Ameri- can Art Museum, Washington D.C.

Morning at Grand Manan Oil on canvas 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 carpen- ter, was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Gifford grew up during the age of the whaling industry, the capital of which was New Bedford, Massachu- setts. Gifford fought in the Civil War, spending time as a prisoner of the Confederacy in Rich- mond, 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.

Apart from one trip to London, Scotland and Ire- land in 1879, Gifford continued to live mainly in Racing on Buzzards Bay Oil on canvas 18 ½ x 34 ½ inches Signed, lower right the New Bedford-Fairhaven region. He painted primarily along the New England coast, including the Elizabeth Islands and Nantucket, and occa- sionally 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, Mas- sachusetts 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 Bos- ton. 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, 1876- 1886; the New Bedford Art Club in 1920; and several other galleries in Bos- ton 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) Antonio Nicolo Gaspara Jacobsen, foremost chronicler of American shipping in the late 19th and early 20th Centu- ries, 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 Bat- tery Park looking for work, and would pause to sketch the ships in the harbor. From 1871 to 1880 he worked decorat- ing 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 Domin- ion, Fall River, and White Star Steam- ship 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 chil- dren, Jacobsen painted over 6,000 ships Anna R. Heidritter 1910 that came into New York City Harbor between 1894 and 1919. Jacobsen died Oil on board 27 x 42 inches Signed and dated, lower right 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 Provi- dence, 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 re- produced 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 “Enter- prise” 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 Provi- dence Art Club; Boston Art Club; Brooklyn Art Association; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Art Institute of Chi- cago; 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 Oil on canvas 27 x 34 inches Signed, lower left 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 Con- necticut; 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 Rounding the Mark when least effective. Oil on canvas Henry David Thoreau 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 It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the Watercolor and gouache on board day, that without a decisive naval force we can do 12 ½ x 18 inches Signed and dated, lower left 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 impressionis- tic 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 Ameri- can 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 Beaux- Arts 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 Mor- ris 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, out- side 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 Acad- Crane’s Beach, Ipswich, Massachusetts emy of Design in New York. In 1895 Oil on canvas 13 ¾ x 21 ¾ inches Signed, lower left Bicknell turned to watercolors. He died in Malden in 1915. WILLIAM LAMB PICKNELL (1853-1897)

William Lamb Picknell was born in Ver- mont 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 ex- patriate 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 forty- four. 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 Water- color 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, Provi- dence 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

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