Maritime Art Archive
The Santa Maria at Anchor c.1628
This painting by the Flemish marine artist Andries Van Eertvelt (1590-1652) shows the Santa Maria, the flagship of Christopher Columbus at anchor in 1492. Painting more than a century after the event, Van Eertvelt became interested in Mediterranean landscape and history after a tour of Italy in the late 1620s and here is freely and […] Read More
Ice Bergs near Kosoak, Life Boat Cove (From a sketch by Dr Kane)
This haunting image of a brig under full sail on a still, moonlit night, dwarfed by towering icebergs, is an etching made from a sketch by Dr Elisha Kane and is one of a series of images by Kane that record the Second Grinnell expedition of 1853. That expedition was one of two that were […] Read More
An Algerine Ship off a Barbary Port
This painting forms a part of a collection of 79 early Netherlandish marine paintings purchased in 1963 with the assistance of the Society from the widow of Captain Eric Palmer. Eric Palmer (1896–1961), a great character, was one of the Palmer shipbuilding family and was long connected with the Museum as its advisor on the […] Read More
English Ships in a Rough Sea (c.1606)
This painting is part of the extraordinary collection of early Netherlandish marine paintings collected by Captain Eric Palmer and purchased in 1963 with the assistance of the Society from his widow. This panel was purchased from the collection at Ham House near Richmond, the residence of William Murray, a close childhood friend of Charles I. Ham […] Read More
The Alabama 24 December 1871
This interesting lithograph inscribed Berlin, F. Sala & Co purports to show an American wooden paddle steamer called the Alabama on 24 December 1871. In one book, Mail and Passenger Steamships of the XIXth Century (eds Captain H. Parker and Frank C. Bowen) she is described as being built in New York in 1850 for […] Read More
Dutch Ships Revictualling off a Rocky Coast, c.1635-7
Simon de Viegler was one of the most influential of the Dutch school of marine artists. A contemporary of Willem Van de Velde the Elder, Viegler moved maritime art in an exciting new direction with greater and more sophisticated and realistic use of colour whilst maintaining faithful technical accuracy in his depiction of ships and […] Read More
A French Ship and Barbary Pirates, c. 1615
This tiny seascape forms a part of a collection of 79 early Netherlandish marine paintings purchased in 1963 with the assistance of the Society from the widow of Captain Eric Palmer. Eric Palmer (1896–1961), a great character, was one of the Palmer shipbuilding family and was long connected with the Museum as its advisor on […] Read More
Lieutenant Henry Fortescue, (1824)
This painting is particularly interesting as an example of a maritime scene painted by an artist better known for hunting scenes and portraits of horses. Indeed, the artist, John Ferneley, is now considered to be one of British history’s great equine artists, second only to George Stubbs. Ferneley lived in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, some […] Read More
Old Waterloo Bridge (undated)
Wyllie was born a Londoner and spent much of his time in his twenties on a Thames sailing barge he had converted into a studio. A thorough seaman as well as a Londoner he captures in this image the industrial Thames and London’s maritime life with clever use of light and shadow. The etching is […] Read More
Captain James Newman-Newman, (1801)
This portrait of Captain James Newman-Newman shows him wearing a captain’s full-dress uniform and was painted around 1801. By then Newman-Newman was already a distinguished naval officer, notably having served as a lieutenant on the 100-gun First Rate Royal George at the Glorious First of June in 1794, then considered the hardest-fought battle of the age. […] Read More