Archives: Artists

Naval architect, philosopher and marine painter A.S. Smith acquired his taste for the water at an early age. He grew up in New York, with the eastern shore of the Hudson river for a playground. Close by his home was the shipyard of the great William Webb and across the river in Hoboken was moored…

Sheppard was a true Renaissance Man: successful as an artist, teacher, author, yachtsman, navigator and yacht designer. He studied painting under the excellent M.F.H. de Haas in New York City, and received his formal art training at the Cooper Union. He was born on the Delaware River in Greenwich, New Jersey, a place associated with…

Although very little is known about the artist, the Chicago based Torgerson worked throughout the Great Lakes area, usually from direct commissions. He worked at one time for the Cunard Steamship Company who made commercial lithographs from his paintings of their ocean liners. Today works by William Torgerson are represented in the permanent collections of…

Considered to be one of the finest practitioners of landscape painting produced in the American West, Marion Kavanagh Wachtel along with her equally talented husband Elmer, traveled extensively throughout Southern California where the two developed an intimate knowledge of the area said to be unmatched by any other artist. Born into an artistic family in…

The 19th century works of Edwin Lord Weeks captured images of the world's exotic locales and cultures. Well-traveled, his paintings rank among the most important images of the architecture and people of Europe, North Africa, Middle East and the Orient by an American. Born in the Boston area to a family with a successful import…

Born in Brooklyn, the son of popular landscape painter Carleton Wiggins, Guy Wiggins had a long and substantial career. Along with preliminary training in architecture at Brooklyn Polytechnic, he studied at the National Academy of Design with William Merritt Chase and the important American Impressionist Robert Henri. Prestige came early for the artist when the…

Born in Connecticut, the artist moved to New York City where he was employed in the manufacture and sales of silk thread. In 1880, he ventured into business for himself, taking commissions from owners to portray their well-known New York area yachts. As his reputation grew, he received many commissions from the elite New York…

An accomplished realist who painted with a precise and skillful use of existing light, he is believed to have been an entirely self-taught. Born in 1854 in Waterford, Connecticut, little is known about his past until he set up studio in 1877 in downtown New York City. He regularly exhibited with the National Academy of…

A traditional American marine artist in ever sense, it is unusual for an artist to exhibit such a high level of quality, which Joseph B. Smith does, and have only two dozen or so known surviving works to his credit. The majority of works were performed in conjunction with his son, William S. Smith; born…

Patterson was born into a family of the sea. His father was president of the Whitehaven Shipbuilding Company of Southampton, his uncle was a ship master and his brother was also a mariner. At thirteen, Patterson was apprenticed and went to sea as ship's boy. As a deep water sailor, Patterson rounded Cape Horn four…

For more than 60 years, Norman Rockwell’s works have enchanted the public with their clear-eyed, humorous and accurate picture of the heartland of American life. He worked in the tradition of the great artist commentators of the past, and like them, had the uncanny skill of projecting the tenor of his time. His covers for…

Born in Philadelphia, William Trost Richards became one of America’s truly great artists. Initially a designer, he was a student of American artist Paul Weber and in 1853 embarked on a three year journey to study art in Florence, Rome, Paris, and Dusseldorf. At first Richards was recognized for his landscapes and still lifes painted…

Not all artists travel a traditional path of intensive study to perfect their muse. San Diego's Charles Reiffel, a self-taught artist who won more than 23 important painting awards nationwide, did not paint full time until he was 58 years old. A lithographer by profession, Reiffel first worked in Cincinnati, then New York, before heading…

A popular impressionist with substantial importance to the emergence of Plein-Air impressionism in California, Granville Redmond is recognized as a painter of exceptional talent. He succeeded in the face of the daunting disability of losing his hearing and speech at the age of two. His family moved to California from Philadelphia in 1874, and he…

American sea painter William Pierce Stubbs was born in Bucksport, Maine in 1842. As the son of sea captain Reuben Stubbs his childhood years were filled with a fascination for the sea and the great sailing ships that worked their way along the Maine coast. Little is known about the early period of his life,…

The adopted son of Captain Gideon Liscomb Stanwood and Portland, Maine, Franklin Stanwood learned much of his father's trade. He served as a mariner on several voyages to Europe, the west Indies and around Cape Horn. His first known oil painting is of the Peruvian coast and dates to 1873. By 1877, he had established…

If a person may be measured by the work he or she leaves the world, Samuel Ward Stanton equates well with any marine artist. An avid scholar and author, his diverse body of work focuses on the subject of his primary interest, American steamships. It's as an artist that he is best remembered; rightly so,…

Henry Bayley Snell traveled the world extensively, but spent much of his life in the scenic Delaware River Valley in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was one of the earliest artists to settle there and soon became affiliated with the region's New Hope School of American Impressionism which was founded by the noted tonal painter, William…

Born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts to a Quaker father who was a ship-fitter, Bradford was formally trained in marine art first sharing a studio with Albert van Beest. In the 1860s he opened a studio in New York and began photographing his subjects as a reference to use in finishing paintings in his studio. This technique…

Painter, lecturer and teacher Maurice Braun was born in Nagy Bittse, Hungary, but had emigrated to New York by age 4. At 20 he began studying art with E.M. Ward and George Maynard at the National Academy of Fine Art, and later with William Merit Chase in New York. In 1902-3 he traveled to Europe…