Art and the Sea
Please note: As part of the works on our exciting new capital project the Sammy Ofer Wing, Art and the Sea closed 28 November 2010.
The sea has always been a source of artistic inspiration. Its vastness and power have supplied immediately recognisable symbols for moral and religious works of art. It has been the site of the rise and fall of nations, and of sacrifice and heroism. At the same time its landscape, and those who make their living from the sea, have provided images that embody individual, humanist values, and the quiet dignity of everyday life and labour.
The development of maritime art was closely linked to the rise of urban life and national identity, themselves driven by increasing access to open seas and new lands. For example, Renaissance and 17th-century artists celebrated the sea's relationship with trade, the transformation of ports into cities, and the growth of royal or republican navies. Large 'seascapes' of ships in the river or on the open sea suited the tastes of the noble families, wealthy corporations and merchants who were their clients.
From around 1700 onwards, maritime art became a vehicle for nationalism. Portraits of naval commanders and their great sea victories epitomised national endeavor; the coast and ships symbolised the defence of the nation. In the 20th century, governments employed artists to record the war at sea and document the war effort in home ports and harbours.
This public art was paralleled by the growth of a more intimate portrayal of daily existence on or by the sea. Coastal and river scenes, for example, formed an important element in landscape painting. Impressionism explored the light on the waves, or figures on the shoreline. Some artists were drawn to fashionable resorts, portraying the mainly middle-class recreations of the 'seaside'. Others sought out the labouring poor in fishing villages, creating pictures of an often idealised industriousness and rural simplicity that were being swept away by progress and science. Even Modernism found this kind of inspiration from the sea, as a source of usable myths and as the last great wilderness, providing an imaginative escape from the pressures of urban existence.
This less troubled image of the sea has become dominant as the lives of most people have grown increasingly distant from maritime concerns. At times the sea again bursts into our consciousness in all its power, as countries go to war, or as tidal waves destroy lives and property. The progress of such events, however, is now more usually recorded on film than on canvas.
The gallery
This gallery looks at the role of the sea in European visual culture. The art of the sea is an art of the modern era – that of expanding cities, of international power and wealth creation, and of the developing nation state, all driven by access that men have had to the open seas. Based on works from the Museum's collections, this gallery examines some of the ways in which European culture has looked out to sea.
The gallery provides visitors with an opportunity to discover the Museum's art collection, the largest of its kind in the world, extending from 16th-century engravings to late-20th century art installations.
Interesting facts
In the Salon review of 1857, the French writer and art critic Charles Baudelaire called for a new 'art of the river' to emphasise the urban character of the Seine. Two years later, the American artist James Abbot McNeill Whistler, inspired by Baudelaire's vision, rented rooms in Wapping, on London's dockside. Here he set about creating a series of sixteen etchings of the Thames which would revolutionise the way that artists have looked at the river ever since.
On 3 February 1598, the citizens of Katwyck, near Scheveningen on the Dutch coast, woke to find an immense whale stranded on their beach. Along with scientists and writers, Hendrick Goltzius, the leading Netherlandish printmaker of his day, went to draw the whale and the crowds of curious visitors who had flocked to see this strange monster. From his drawing came the first print of a topical event produced for the general public – the first ever 'news' print. The print's popularity may have been enhanced by the whale's spectacularly noxious explosion some days after Goltzius' visit.
Eugène Louis Boudin
Brought up in rural Normandy, Boudin was reluctantly compelled as a professional artist to live in Paris. He spent most of his summers painting on the beach of Trouville, a tourist resort. By the 1870s he had begun to turn his back on its social environment, preferring more traditional subjects which express a nostalgia for Trouville's old existence as a fishing village.
Timeline
1360 BC - One of the earliest representations of an Ancient Egyptian vice-regal barge is painted on a wall in a tomb at Thebes.
AD61 - Roman London is a fortified town and centre of trade.
1105 - Henry I grants a charter of self-rule to the City of London.
1192 - The Corporation of London elects the first mayor.
1197 - Roman London is a fortified town and centre of trade.
c.1400-1600 - Ships and marine landscapes feature in Renaissance altar-pieces, atlases, maps and charts.
1500-1600 - The population of London rises from 55,000 to 200,000.
1588 - The first issue of Mariner's Mirrour is published
17th century - The great age of marine painting in the Netherlands. Artists active in this period include Hendrick Vroom (1566–1640), Simon de Vlieger (1600–53), Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611–93) and his son Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633–1707). In 1672 the van de Veldes emigrate to England
late-17th–mid-18th century - Under the influence of the van de Veldes, a school of marine painting emerges in England. Their followers include Isaac Sailamker (1633–1721) and Peter Monamy (1681–1749).
1691 - Lloyds Coffee House in London becomes an office for maritime insurance
1750 - London is Europe's largest city with a population of over 700,000.
Mid–late 18th century - The rise of the professional marine artist. Those who come to prominence in Britain include Dominic Serres (1722–93) and Nicholas Pocock (1740–1821). Portait painters such as Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–92) and George Romney (1734–1802) paint numerous naval officers. (See the Collections online for examples of work by Serres, Pocock and Reynolds.)
Late-18th–mid-19th century - The great age of Romantic painting, with seascapes and battle paintings by Philippe-Jacques de Louthenbourg (1740–1812), J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) and Theodore Gericault (1791–1824).
1799–1829 - The first phase of dock building, including West India Dock (opened 1802), East India Dock (1803), London Docks (1805), St.Katherine's Dock (1828). These new companies enjoy monopolies for the first 21 years of their existence. Later, as their monopolies end, several of the companies merge.
1840s - First railway links to the docks.
1868–80 - Another round of building, including Millwall Docks (1868), Tilbury Docks (1886) and the Royal Albert Docks (1880).
1874 - Eugene Boudin, influential French marine painter, exhibits for the first time at the Impressionists' exhibition, Paris.
1877 - Built in about 1500 BC by Pharaoh Thothmes III, Cleopatra's Needle had been presented to England at the beginning of the 19th century.
Its transport to London was only made possible in October 1877 by a private sponsor, Dr Erasmus Wilson, and by John Dixon who designed a cylindrical vessel, the Cleopatra, built around the Needle.
Late-19th century - Some American marine painters come to the fore. Important marine painters in the USA include Fitz Hugh Lane and Martin Johnson Heade.
1908 - The Port of London Act brings the management of the port under the control of the Port of London Authority (PLA), established in 1909.
1914–18 - Canadian and British governments commission artists to paint scenes of war at sea and on land during the First World War.
Early-20th century - Emergence of Newlyn school of painting.
1920s - Introduction of the Dock Labour Registration scheme, and a minimum wage for dockers.
1929 - Noroldeutscher Lloyd Liner Bremen captures Atlantic 'Blue Riband'
1940s - Emergence of St Ives school of painting. Ben and Winifred Nicholson in St Ives, whose paintings and sculptures evoke marine landscapes and forms, also 'discover' local 'primitive' artists such as Alfred Wallis.
1939–45 - War Artists' Advisory Commission established in Britain to record the war; artists engaged include Eric Ravilious and Richard Eurich
1939–45 - Bombing causes extensive damage to London's docks, estimated at £13.5 million.
1947 - A new National Dock Labour Board becomes the employer of all registered port workers.
1960s - Labour disputes and failure to invest leads to London being bypassed in the first phases of containerisation. In 1960 there are over 23,000 men on the Dock Register. By 1971 only 16,500 registered dockers remain, their numbers cut by a severance scheme.
1974–82 - Construction of the Thames Barrier (Silvertown to Charlton) to protect London from flooding.
1981 - London's Docklands Development Corporation is set up and authorised to spend public money in buying up derelict and empty docks to build offices and housing.
1987 - Docklands Light Railway opens at an initial cost of £77 million.
Gallery details
Sponsor : Commercial General Norwich Union
