Boats in Art History

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) (1873-76), Homer

September marks the end of Summer, boating season, near end of major league baseball, the start of Fall and the school year. Sailing and sailboats have always fascinated me, though not enough to purchase one. Instead, I'll stick to rowboats and canoes, fishing on lakes rather than the open seas. My first, and probably my favorite, sailing painting is by Winslow Homer, an artist whom I studied in Art History in college. The man and three boys makes me nostalgic for my dad and two brothers.

Impression Sunrise (1872), Monet

Around the same time, French Impressionist Claude Monet painted his iconic Impression Sunrise. Blues dominate this seascape with contrasting orange punctuating an amazing sunrise. The only other colors are dark green and purple suggesting the silhouetted shapes of small watercraft against a background of larger ships.

Boating (1874), Manet

Édouard Manet's Boating captures a young couple sailing in the Summer. The man is Manet's brother-in-law, Rodolphe Leenhoff, and it is only assumed that the woman is Manet's wife, Camille. While the boom is meant to frame the scene, I am bothered by the corner and the dark-shadowed interior behind the woman's back. And her pose seems unsteady, awkwardly leaning into an empty space. Luckily, Leenhoff's white clothing takes contrasting focus away from the darker parts of the boat.

The Boating Party (1893/94), Cassatt

In contrast to the Manet painting (above), Mary Cassatt's portrait (with child) is darker, but includes a thin sliver of horizon not present in Manet's. Cassatt has rendered a Gauguin-like ~post-impressionist work using solid, decorative, almost geometric shapes that flatten the picture. The rigging of the sail cuts off the shadowed portion of the female figures. The sail and the woman's hat shade the woman's face and the top half of the child's face. Cassatt has used a light green (citron) and black to divide the scene from the expanse of blue water, helped by the diagonal lines of the rigging and oar.

Fishing Boats on the Beach (1888), Van Gogh

I love Van Gogh's paintings of fishing boats. The masts, spars, and rigging seem to complicate the composition to me. Especially the reddish orange diagonal line (boom?)! As always, I appreciate Vincent's use of yellow. His trip to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer lasted one week in June 1888, approximately two years before the artist's death in July 1890.

Sunrise (Mane) (1872-73), Monet

Another of Monet's sunrise paintings is on exhibit at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, where my daughter recently visited. She knows of my passion for art and particularly impressionists. Just as atmospheric as the one above, but softer and less bright, I think I actually prefer this version to the other more famous sunrise painting.

Boats at Anchor (1917), Sargent

My favorite portrait artist, John Singer Sargent, also painted landscapes and seascapes. I love this watercolor of Boats at Anchor (1917). Sometimes I wish artists would edit out the somewhat repetitive reflections in favor of simplifying their compositions. Using watercolor though, Sargent merely suggests, rather than duplicates, the reflected images. His quick brushstrokes and squiggly masts make the water come alive with light and shadow. I'm not sure about the white blob in the bottom left corner (another boat?).

The Boat (1953), Matisse

As far as reflections, Henri Matisse created a rather simple paper-cut composition of a sailboat. In 1961, his work was mistakenly hung upside-down at MOMA in New York for 47 days before a museum patron alerted a guard about it. I love showing this one to my young art students! 

Vernazza Harbor (2024), Patterson

My last example of boats is my own acrylic painting of the harbor at Vernazza, Italy. I painted it for my daughter and her husband last year for Christmas, after promising it as their wedding present almost two years prior. The hardest part was the windows and the mooring pier to the right. I like the smaller reflections of the boats in the middle ground and how the reflection of the water shimmers on the wall of the pier. This would make an excellent jigsaw puzzle! Maybe I'll submit it for another Xmas gift.

Farmhouses in Watercolor and Oil

Corman Farmhouse (1976), Corman

I'm inspired to write about buildings rendered in watercolor after my brother sent this painting of a farm where his wife's stepmother's family lived in the 1970s. The artist is Mereda Smith Corman, who was an art teacher at Kennett High School in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. She married John Wilson Corman in 1926 and died in 1993. What I love about this painting is the detail of the windows of the farmhouse, the warm shades of golden brown in the sky and grass, and the treatment of the snow in the trees. It feels like a scene that might have been depicted in a Currier and Ives hand-painted lithograph.

The Old Farmhouse

Here's The Old Farmhouse by Currier and Ives. Note how the color of the sky reflects in the snow in the foreground at the bottom, much like Corman's golden brown in the painting above. Even the composition is similar.

Farmhouse in Provence (1888), Van Gogh

While Van Gogh's colors are much more vibrant and brighter than the above farmhouse paintings, he has included a winding rock wall, which for me ties back to the wall in Corman's work. The person walking on the grassy hillside reminds me of Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth. I'm particularly attracted to the turbulent cyan sky! The angles of the twisting wall, the road, and the grassy border drawing my eye towards the welcoming gate.

Wyeth Tribute (2005), Thompson

I've blogged about the above Van Gogh and Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World in another post. I was impressed by this photograph by Alex Thompson of the (Christina) Olson house in South Cushing, Maine. The photo is more vibrant and the buildings much closer than in the Wyeth painting. Not nearly as dramatic as the painting!

Spring Blossom, Hogerwaard

Dutch impressionist, Frans Hogerwaard painted this beautiful farmhouse. His style is reminiscent of Van Gogh, Monet, and sometimes Edward Hopper when melancholy figures are included. The black outlines in Fin tragique remind me of the art of German Expressionist, Max Beckmann. Instead of black, the impressionists often used purple so as not to clash with the more muted or pastel colors.

A Farm in the Snow, Apol

I'm a sucker for wintry landscapes that include snow, like Louis Apol's A Farm in the Snow. This oil on panel paintings has almost a watercolor feel, and again the background color of the sky is mimicked in the water in the foreground. The white of the snow looks straight out of the tube against the rest of the muted colors.

Farmyard in the Snow, van Soest

Another Dutch Impressionist, Louis van Soest, also painted winter scenes. The trees are reminiscent of those painted by Andrew Wyeth. It's difficult to tell what the golden brown area is atop the snowbank below the trees. My impression is that it is a line of cows. Perhaps they're haybales? What do you think?

Farm Near Duivendrecht (1916), Mondrian

I found this somewhat rare landscape by Piet Mondrian with a farmhouse and its reflection. The scene takes place at twilight, so it is rather dark, with much of the lighter color in the sunsetting sky. The interwoven branches of the overlapping trees apply an unusually high focus, almost obscuring the house. The grey mound in the water is also weird!

This beautiful watercolor rendering of a farmhouse is by Canadian artist, Ben Babelowsky. The red brick building is complemented by the green painted trim. Again, I love the snow gently blanketing the scene.

Home in Manchester, Moses

Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses began painting later in life and was labeled a 'primitive' artist. Her paintings are characterized by shapes filled in with solid colors and her buildings lack proper perspective. Her designs could have been executed in needlepoint or quilting. Another primitive artist, Warren Kimble, painted Nellie's Barn, which I blogged about in June 2021 in my post entitled, Farms and Barns by Famous Artists.

Long Island Farmhouses (1862), Mount

American genre painter, William Sidney Mount painted from what he saw in Long Island New York observing his relatives' farm, and capturing this pastoral scene in Springtime. It seems like an early morning scene, though the turbulent sky may reflect the turmoil of the Civil War during which it was painted. Once again, the dark sky and shadowy foreground frame the picture.

The Farm (1920-22), Miró

I'm finishing with The Farm by Spanish Surrealist, Joan Miró, who painted this memory of his childhood home in Mont-Roig, Catalonia. With lots of symbolism and the precision of Cubism, Miró has created a dreamlike collage full of nearly every farm-related object he could cram into the painting. It's like Grandma Moses on Steroids! I would love to see this work in person and study each and every element.