American Sail Ship
20th Century Oil On Board

Like most collectors and art dealers I often get hung up on “artist value” based on book and database listings and as a result the actual “visual value” often gets lost in the transactional process.   I cannot count the times I have talked to other dealers who admit they too often end up buying a “dead” painting just because it was a particular artist and in the end they are unable to sell it because of its lack of aesthetic desirability.   My own area of collecting is 19th century seascapes and portraits.

However, once in a while a piece out of my realm is so incredibly captivating, I cannot resist. Because the need to sell it will be overshadowed by the gratification of displaying it in my home or office for maybe several years will never be a source of anxiety.  As a matter of fact, I have a number of paintings I actually removed off my website because the pleasure they provided evolved and eventually outweighed the financial benefits. The description below is from the dealer I acquired it from.   However, I did not find much on “J Clark” or “John Clark” of the 20th century time period.  However, this seascape is so breathtaking, that a guide book or database of listed artists was irrelevant.  You don’t need a book to determine the brilliance in this painting.  It either “moves you” or it doesn’t.  And if this artist doesn’t have many “listings” today, how long before you think that is going to change?

I could go on and on about this amazing seascape art, but I'll let the images do the talking.  The below is from the original dealer.

This piece is a RARE FIND due to its size, age and beauty and is an original painting signed by VERY WELL listed American artist John Clark (20th Century) who is listed in the Davenport, Artprice and various other art indexes. This artist is a very well known Contemporary New York artist who is known for doing Early Genres. It is original Oil on Panel Board painting that depicts a beautiful Coastal Ocean Seascape with a nice American Sail Ship or Clipper of Frigate ship of an early time period with the American Flag waving and blowing in the wind at the back of the sail. This painting was done with great detail in both color and clarity with distinctive characteristics of the beautiful open seas on the horizon and giving a depiction of a beautiful ship with large and tall masts with very fine detail of the ropes and the front sails at the bow. It was well done with beautiful brush strokes and nice shades of tonalism in the sky with beautiful shading and reflections of the sun haze coming through off the waters down to the finest details of even the ropes and sail masts. This is a beautiful Genre of Early American sailing into the sunrise or sunset and was done with such fine detail.

Size: Framed 19x22.5"

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Schooners/Sailboats
19th Century
Oil on Board

Absolutely Breath-taking! Everything about this painting is exceptional. The almost sepia tone colors, the detail and depth. Not much more needs to be said, as the photos say it all. Comes in period frame. Signed lower left, "Severance".

Condition: Has a couple touch up areas and a couple paint chips. A professional cleaning would place this magnificent piece in to museum quality territory.

Size: 22x28” unframed, 26 x 32” framed.

Shipping: $100 within US. International will be quoted.

Circa 1850

Original high quality oil painting on canvas. A clearly illustrated landscape with an impressive sunset. A well-composed piece with great detail, light and color combination.

ARTIST: Signed "Both". Probably a Dutch artist.
DATING: Early-mid 19th Century.
CONDITION: Very good. No missing paint, holes or tears. Please see the photos. The frame is in a good condition with signs of age. Can be hung as it is.

SIZE: 18 1/2" by 13 1/2" (47 cm by 34 cm) without the frame. 25" by 20" (64 cm by 51 cm) with the frame.

One of our absolute FAVORITES!

Theodore Victor Carl Valenkamph (American, 1868-1924)
"On the High Sea"

Spectacular seascape, ship with sails open, smaller sailboat in background battling the rough seas. . Signed "T.V.C. Valenkamph" l.r. Oil on canvas

Size: 20 x 24" without frame, 25x29" framed.

Condition: Craquelure, light creases, surface grime.

Sales History: Sold very similar, same size "A Square Rigger on the Open Seas" at Butterflields San Francisco, August 2005 for $7600

BIO:
A native of Stockholm, Sweden, Theodore Valenkamph became an East Coast marine painter. He emigrated to the United States and settled in Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1899.

By 1903, he had a studio in Boston on Tremont Street in the Studio Building, and by 1909 had moved to Rocky Neck Avenue in East Gloucester.

]]> Site Admin (Kevin MC) http://www.cvtreasures.com/fine-art-oil-paintings-marines-seascapes-c-69_99/theodore-valenkamph-19th-seascape-rough-seas-oil-p-1627 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:24:30 -0500 USD 1627 http://www.cvtreasures.com/images/large/Valenkamph-Seascape-framed_LRG.jpg http://www.cvtreasures.com/fine-art-oil-paintings-marines-seascapes-c-69_99/walter-brown-venice-watercolor-p-517 http://www.cvtreasures.com/product_reviews/walter-brown-venice-watercolor-p-517

Walter Brown (1853-1929)

Walter Francis Brown was a painter and illustrator whose specialty was scenes of Venice, his adopted home. He studied at Brown University and in Paris with Jean Leon Gerome. Ironically our other Venice piece by Frank Boggs, ALSO studied under Jean-Leon Gerome

His work can be found at the Hay Library in Providence, Rhode Island. He was an illustrator for 'A Tramp Abroad', by Mark Twain, and 'Roger Williams', by Charles Miller.

Walter brown is a well listed artist and is well known among New England art collectors. .

SALES HISTORY: "Ship Anchored off the Coast" sold at Pook and Pook Auctions in May 2003 for $3,163.

Size: 9.5"x17", 19x27" framed

Christian Benjamin Olsen (1873-1935)
"Danish Ship in Seascape"

Original high quality oil painting on canvas. A calm and tranquil seascape with a well-illustrated sail ship. A really STUNNING work of art with amazing depth and detail. !

ARTIST: Signed "Chr. Benjamin Olsen", l.r.. Christian Benjamin Olsen (1873-1935) is a well-listed artist. Self-taught under the guidance of Chr. Blache. He travelled widely and went on marine expeditions to the Faroe Islands, Iceland , Greenland , Scotland , Spain , Tenerife , Portugal , Italy (the royal couple's journeys).

He received Neuhausens Prize in 1919. Benjamin Olsen focused on rendering ships, sea and sky as precisely as possible. He followed the tradition from Vilh. Arnesen and Chr. Blache. In his small works he has made intense studies of sea and air.

He exhibited at Charlottenborg, Kunstnernes Efteraarsudstilling (the Artists' Fall Exhibition), in Brooklyn and at Valdemar Castle . His works can be found in the Trade and Navigation Museeum ( Kronborg Castle ) and at the museum at Koldinghus. There is a collection of his art at Middelfart Museum .

Price example: He sold "The Greenland ferry Gustav Holm" for $7,247 at Kunsthallen, Copenhagen , in January 1991

Additional Shipping & Insurance to US addresses only: $70.00

Overseas shipping: please contact us for costs.

STUNNING SEASCAPE
"Battle at Sea"
1894

"Choctows Boat", circa 1935
Original Watercolor

An exceptionally executed watercolor of a boat identified as "Choctows Boat". Comes with original photo of the boat from 1935 along with the original blueprint of the boat. So much nicer in person!

If you are in the New England area this fine work of art will be displayed in our gallery space in the new RI Antique Mall at Interstate 95, exit 30 in Pawtucket, RI.

Signed: lower left Wallace Randall

Size: 20 x 29", 24 x 33" with frame.

WILLIAM E. NORTON (American, 1843-1916)
“ICE ENCRUSTED SHIP AND TUG OFF BOSTON LIGHT”
Old Antique Oil Painting on canvas

With stunning detail, color and depth. Signed indistinctly W. E. Norton, l.r.; dated 1877; oil on canvas.
Highly Listed Artist. In September 2007 a very similar (almost identical style, subject and size) sold for $26.500

Size: 15 x 25” unframed

Condition: 3 inch crack with restoration above sail, u.r.; with corresponding patch on verso, verso painted green

BIO:

Born in Boston in 1843, William Norton became a noted marine painter, stirred by his youth when he sailed on family-owned ships. He studied at the Lowell Institute in Boston, and with George Inness, and then established a studio in Boston.

In the early 1870s, he went to Paris and became a student with Chevreuse and A. Vollon, and then he settled in London where he exhibited throughout the last quarter of the 19th century. His reputation there was based on his scenes of the Thames River, and ocean and coastal views.

In 1901, he and his wife returned to the United States and settled in New York City. He also painted at Monhegan Island, Maine, where a treacherous ledge on the southern side of the island is named "Norton's Ledge" for him.

He was a member of the Boston Art Club with whom he exhibited from 1873 to 1909. He also exhibited with the Pennsylvania Academy, the Royal Academy in London, the Paris Salon, the 1893 Chicago Exposition, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

]]> Site Admin (Kevin MC) http://www.cvtreasures.com/fine-art-oil-paintings-marines-seascapes-c-69_99/william-e-norton-ice-encrusted-ship-boston-1877-p-1619 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:51:10 -0400 5500.00 USD 1619 1 http://www.cvtreasures.com/images/large/Norton_LRG.jpg http://www.cvtreasures.com/fine-art-oil-paintings-marines-seascapes-c-69_99/russell-smith-loch-leven-from-ballachulish-old-oil-painting-p-1620 http://www.cvtreasures.com/product_reviews/russell-smith-loch-leven-from-ballachulish-old-oil-painting-p-1620

RUSSELL SMITH (American, 1812-1896)
"Loch Leven from Ballachulish"
Old Antique Oil Painting on canvas

Original quality oil painting on canvas.
On a beautiful moonlit night, a lone ship sails on the vast ocean.

Frank Myers Boggs (1855-1926)
"Venice"

A stunning pastel of Venice of which Frank Boggs was best known. Signed lower right and titled "Venice" lower left.

SALES HISTORY: Frank Boggs is a highly listed artist with strong high demand sales history. For example, Pont St Michel sold at Sotheby's October 1989 for $49,500 and most recently sold Place De la Concorde, Paris at Shannon's in June 2006 for $29, 875

Size: 10.5x13.5" unframed, 22x25" framed

Bio:
Frank Boggs was a master of cloudy skies in landscape paintings, but was more strongly attracted to the soft light of misty mornings and rainy afternoons than the brilliant sunlight of his Impressionist peers. He was?best known for his scenes of Venice and Paris. Contemporary American critics tended to view Boggs as an Impressionist, especially when he exhibited in New York early in his career. But although his brush became loose and free and his palette lightened as he matured, the artist never completely adopted Impressionistic methods.

He was known and appreciated for delicate and subtle harmonies of blue, gray and green. In this respect, his style has sometimes been compared to the Tonalism of James McNeill Whistler.

Boggs was born in Springfield, Ohio, in 1855. While still young, he was brought to New York City where his father was a newspaper executive. At age seventeen he took his first job, as a wood engraver at "Harpers" magazine. At age twenty-one, he decided to go to Paris to study stage design, having received encouragement from a French designer whom he had met. Finding, however, no one in Paris to instruct him in his newly chosen profession, he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he studied painting under Jean-Leon Gerome. Ironically our other Venice piece by Walter Brown ALSO studied under Jean-Leon Gerome.

In 1923 Boggs became a French citizen. Three years later, preparations were underway to award him the Legion of Honor. When informed of this coveted recognition by his adopted country, he expressed great delight. Sadly, Frank Meyer Boggs died, however, the day before the award was made public.

Xanthus Russell Smith (1839 - 1929)
Watercolor Painting, Circa 1875
Marine/Canal Scene with Merchant Vessels and Sailboats.

Exceptional 19th Century watercolor by this highly listed American artist. Possibly a canal in Maine as was many of his marine scenes. He also did scenes from South Carolina, but this is a mountainous view, so more likely Maine.

He was the second of a three artist generation. His father Russell and Son Xanthus Jr. You can research online and see for yourself what he has sold for and hence, the immense demand for his work. This is also unusually larger then most of his paintings which historically command higher values. Signed Lower left.

Size: 10.5 x 19".

BIO:

Known as a painter of Civil War marine battle scenes, Xanthus Smith sold his first paintings at age fifteen. Two years later he exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and by the start of the Civil War, he was an established painter. His signature paintings after the War were small and had minute brushstrokes, blending clouds and sky with space well defined.

He was born and raised in suburban Philadelphia, and learned much of his painting technique from his mother, Mary Priscilla Smith, who was an accomplished painter in a delicate manner of flowers in watercolor. His father, Russell Smit,h was a theater scene painter whose style was much bolder and aggressive than his wife's. Be sure to check out the spectacular seascape, marine oil painting by Russell Smith, we have here on our web site.

Xanthus served in the Union Navy from September, 1862 and painted while serving as a captain's clerk. He saw limited action, but his love of the sea led to a series of naval scenes, painted between 1869 and 1874. His studio was in Philadelphia, where he also sold many marine and landscape paintings, most of them small about eight by twelve inches. One of his paintings was a 30-foot long beach scene of Cape May, New Jersey, which was painted for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

He also painted portraits and did photography, but painting Civil War and Marine scenes remained a life-long specialty.

Benjamin Foster (American 1852 - 1926)
Watercolor
"Rocky Coast"

Signed "Ben.Foster." l.l.
Watercolor on paper/board. Very nice, coastal scene from this highly listed American artist

Sales History: Sold "Waning Day" in June 2006 for $14,800

Size: 11 1/2 x 23 1/4" unframed, 14x26 framed.
Condition: Toning, not examined out of frame.

BIO:
Benjamin Foster's painting specialty was bucolic scenes of the New England countryside. His style was predominantly Tonalist with subdued colors and limited tones---almost exclusively autumn colors, muted browns, grays and rusts. In Tonalist tradition, he completed most of his paintings, both oil and watercolor, in his studio and not on location, "en plein air."

Foster was born in North Anson, Maine, where he spent his childhood, along with his artist brother, Charles Foster. For financial reasons, he did not begin an art career until he was almost age thirty. In 1870, he settled in New York City, and took a mercantile job to support art training. He attended the Art Students League in New York City, and studied privately with Abbott Thayer, whose influence on Foster was the painting of floral still lifes.

In 1886, like many American artists, he went to Paris, He traveled with Leonard Ochtman and Charles Warren Eaton, with whom he had been sharing a New York studio at 9 East 17th Street. In Paris, he studied with Aime Morot, Luc Oliver Merson, and Harry Thompson and exhibited paintings at the Paris Salon. He also went to the French countryside including Barbizon where he did pastoral paintings.

Foster returned to America in 1887, and lived both in Manhattan and Cornwall Hollow, Connecticut, where he had a country home. Most of his landscape painting was of that area. He sought out "intimate corners of his environment---usually tree-lined ponds, fields, and woodlands---that he liked to depict at contemplative times of day, such as dawn or dusk, and during intermediary times of year." (Lowrey 134)

In addition to painting, he wrote art reviews for the New York Evening Post and the Nation. He was a member of the National Arts Club, National Academy of Design, New York Water Color Society, National Water Color Society, Lotos Club, California Art Club and Society of Men Who Paint the Far West.

He died in New York City. Upon his death, the National Arts Club released a memorial notice that described Benjamin Foster as "the ideal type of artist . . . ardent in seeking deeper meanings, but indifferent to the casual and popular."

Among his affiliations, he was a member of: New York Water Color Club; American Water Color Society; Century Association; Society of American Artists; California Art Club; Lotos Club; Salmagundi Club; National Arts Club; and was elected to Associate status in the National Academy of Design in 1901 and Member in 1904. His notable exhibits include: Chicago, 1893 (Gold medal); Cleveland 1895 (prize); Paris Salon 1897 (Foret de Fontainebleau) and 1900 (bronze medal); National Academy of Design 1906, 1909 (Inness gold medal), 1917.

Best known as a landscape painter, Foster's works are actively sought by both private and public collections. His works are held in: Corcoran Gallery of Art; Luxembourg Museum, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Paris Museum of Modern Art; Oakland Museum, California; and, The Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art.