Nantucket Race Week & Maritime Paintings

In honor of Nantucket Race Week we are celebrating the art of sailing at Cavalier Galleries.  Our ongoing Important Maritime Paintings Exhibition includes some of the best known historical artists, as well as some of the most renowned contemporary painters in this field. Several of our contemporary artists have even created works honoring the famed Opera House Cup Regatta and the Rainbow Fleet Parade!

This show is up until September 1st!

Maritime and marine painting were particularly popular genres beginning in the 17^th century. These paintings depict ships at sea, sometimes solitary or with human figures. They can also be purely seascapes, incorporating the water, sky, and the shoreline.

Here are some highlighted artists:

Marteen Platje - Born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 1967, Maarten Platje studied at the Ars Aemula Naturae Art Academy in Leiden. Maarten Platje began exhibiting his work in 1986 and built a reputation as an outstanding marine painter. In 1996 Maarten Platje was officially invited by the Royal Dutch Navy to embark on a frigate during NATO operations in the Mediterranean waters around the former Yugoslavia. His paintings are on a permanent display at the Naval Museum in Den Helder and at the Museum of the Marine Corps of the Royal Netherlands Navy in Rotterdam. Maarten Platje’s marine paintings are carefully-orchestrated compositions created from an assembly of several old pictures, old drawings and ship models discovered at antique stores or placed at his disposal from private collections.

Maarten Platje, The Fleet of the NYYC leaving Newport in 1896, oil on canvas

John Stobart - Renowned maritime artist John Stobart was born in Leicester, England. At an early age, he developed an interest in art and studied at the Derby College of Art, and then at the Royal Academy Schools in London. He became interested in maritime painting during a voyage he took to Africa, and eventually he moved to the United States in the 1960s, where his career really took off. Stobart focused on the harbors of America, and the important ships and scenes from maritime history. He quickly became the most sought-after maritime painter, exhibiting in numerous galleries and museums, including the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Salmagundi Club. His works are also found in countless private collections. He has published two books of his paintings, and was featured on a PBS television series.

John Stobart, Winning the America's Cup, 1983, oil on canvas

Li Xiao - Xiao was born in 1957 in Shanghai, China.In 1976, he attended the Shanghai School of Fine Arts, where he honed his skills as an oil painter. After three years of strict training, he graduated with excellence and became a member of the Shanghai Youth Artists Association. He had several important achievements before he came to the United States to attend the school of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1987.  Nature is a constant source of in inspiration for Xiao, who travels great distances to find the perfect setting for his paintings.

Li Xiao, Sailing by Brant Point, 2014, oil on canvas

Robert Stark - Stark is a luminist, painting principally in oil on canvas and panel. Luminism takes its name from light and refers to the subtle coloristic effects that sunlight, ever changing in intensity, produces on land, sea and in the sky. He sees the New England coast as a place where people have lived long and worked hard and feel part of the land and sea .He attended Nantucket schools and after graduating from Nantucket High School, served in the Navy during the Korean War. He is the most important living artist on the island.

Robert Stark, The Peaceful Patriot, 2014, oil on canvas

Louis Guarnaccia - Louis was born in Omaha, NE in 1958. He has studied under Stanley Stephanowitz, Frank Novak at the Norwich Art School and Slater Museum in Norwich, CT, and Dean Keller, Ken Davies, and Rudolph Zallinger at the Paier College of Art in Hamden, CT. He eventually established his own privately-owned advertising agency and in 1996, Louis moved to Nantucket Island, MA. In 2000, he began painting full time, focusing on both portrait commissions and marine landscapes from around the island.

Louis Guarnaccia, Winning Tack, Nantucket Opera House Regatta, 2013, oil on linen

Alan Eddy - Alan J. Eddy was born in South Boston and attended the Vesper George School of Art in Boston. A scholar of New England maritime history, Eddy has had a lifelong connection to sea and the ships that sail upon her. Eddy is influenced by 19th Century American Luminists Fitz Hugh Lane, Martin Johnson Heade and Frederick Church and has made countless trips to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to study their works. He has exhibited at the Mystic, CT International Marine Art shows, the American Watercolor Society, the National Academy of Design Galleries in New York City, and the Copley Society in Boston.

Alan Eddy, Nantucket Opera House, 2013, oil on canvas

Jim Wolford - James Wolford is an American landscape painter with a focus on architectural subjects. After graduating from The Kansas City Art Institute in 1981, he attended Boston University to study under James Weeks, who is known for his classically influenced post-modern approach to figurative painting.  In 1991, his innovative use of color was recognized by an award from the Colorado Federation for the Arts. In 1996, he relocated to the coast of Maine, which has traditionally drawn artists to its rocky shores and historical villages. His work is featured on the cover of The Art of Monhegan Island, published in 2004.

Jim Wolford, Rainbow Fleet Parade, 2014, oil on canvas

Antonio Jacobsen - Jacobsen (1850-1921) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1850 to a family of violin makers. He studied at the Royal Academy of Copenhagen before immigrating to the United States in 1871. He soon became America's most prolific marine artist, painting about 6,000 portraits of steamships that came into New York City harbor between 1876 and 1919. His work is found in numerous fine public and private collections including the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, Philadelphia, PA; the New York Historical Society; the Peabody Essex Musuem, Salem, MA; Mystic Seaport Museum, Connecticut; Fall River Maritime Museum, MA; and the Louisiana State Museum.

Antonio Jacobsen, Laomene, 1883, oil on panel

William Stanley Haseltine - Haseltine (1835-1900) is one of the most well-known landscape painters of the 19th century. Born in Philadelphia, he studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. He began exhibiting his works soon thereafter at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Haseltine is best known for his paintings of European seascapes and landscapes. He began his tour of Europe in Dusseldorf and then in Italy. He traveled extensively around the continent, from Capri to Venice, painting the Mediterranean Sea and the Venetian canals. He was an elected member of the National Academy of Design. His work is in the collections of major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

William Stanley Haseltine, Fishing Boats, Venice, c.1881, watercolor on paper 

Charles Temple Dix - Marine painter Charles Temple Dix (1838 – 1873) was born in Albany, New York into a notable family of American history. After studying at Union College in Schenectady for one year, he decided to pursue painting with the encouragement of the college president. In 1857, Dix trained with Edward Moran in Philadelphia, and began having exhibitions at the National Academy of Design in New York. After serving as a First Lieutenant in the Civil War, he sailed to Europe to continue his artistic training, and he never left. He spent his time regularly in Barcelona and Rome, where he stayed until his early death in 1873 at the age of thirty-three.

Charles Temple Dix, Marina Grande, Capri, 1886, oil on canvas