Skip to main content
The ship in the center background, and the scene of a whaleboat being broken in half in the lower right, were originally painted around 1830 by the British artist J. Huggins.
Huggins was born in 1781, and died in 1845. In 1834 he was appointed marine painter to King William IV. Huggins collaborated with the engraver Edward Duncan, who make prints of many of his paintings. It is quite possible he made one of this scene. The painting, or a print made from it, is in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, England.
The scene was pirated by a New York print maker named J. Baillie for a work titled "South Sea Whale Fishery". Baillie added painted gunports to the band along the ship's side, and increased the size of the figures in the lower right; particularly the figure diving away from the whale with his feet in the air. He also somewhat modernized the bow and stern of the ship. It seems probable he was working in the late 1840's or the 1850's.
The anonymous artist who painted this painting was apparently inspired by the Baillie print, or some later version of it. The many obvious errors in depicting the rigging of the ship suggest that he was not an experienced seaman. But, he does add one feature Baillie left out; spare boats stowed upside down on "skids" aft, an almost universal feature of American whalers of the 19th century.
The ship appears in another naïve whaling scene owned by the Hart Nautical Museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In this case it was probably copied from an English print rather than Baillie as there are no painted gunports, and bow and stern are of the older style. The artist in this case may himself have been a whaler, as there are a number of details added which the British print lacks, notably in the ship's rigging and in the various whaling activities taking place.
Exhibition History“American Folk Art: Collection from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, January 25, 2001 – March 24, 2001.
Artist
C.W. B.
Whaling Scene
Date1892
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsSight: 23 1/2 × 36 1/2 in. (59.7 × 92.7 cm)
Object numberN0056.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextThe whaleboat in the left hand one-third of the painting is based on an engraving by J.W. Evans, after a drawing by W. Taber, which appeared in the "Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine" August 1890 issue.The ship in the center background, and the scene of a whaleboat being broken in half in the lower right, were originally painted around 1830 by the British artist J. Huggins.
Huggins was born in 1781, and died in 1845. In 1834 he was appointed marine painter to King William IV. Huggins collaborated with the engraver Edward Duncan, who make prints of many of his paintings. It is quite possible he made one of this scene. The painting, or a print made from it, is in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, England.
The scene was pirated by a New York print maker named J. Baillie for a work titled "South Sea Whale Fishery". Baillie added painted gunports to the band along the ship's side, and increased the size of the figures in the lower right; particularly the figure diving away from the whale with his feet in the air. He also somewhat modernized the bow and stern of the ship. It seems probable he was working in the late 1840's or the 1850's.
The anonymous artist who painted this painting was apparently inspired by the Baillie print, or some later version of it. The many obvious errors in depicting the rigging of the ship suggest that he was not an experienced seaman. But, he does add one feature Baillie left out; spare boats stowed upside down on "skids" aft, an almost universal feature of American whalers of the 19th century.
The ship appears in another naïve whaling scene owned by the Hart Nautical Museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In this case it was probably copied from an English print rather than Baillie as there are no painted gunports, and bow and stern are of the older style. The artist in this case may himself have been a whaler, as there are a number of details added which the British print lacks, notably in the ship's rigging and in the various whaling activities taking place.
Exhibition History“American Folk Art: Collection from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, January 25, 2001 – March 24, 2001.
On View
Not on view
