A River Runs Through It
While great marine art can help us imagine voyaging in mighty ships across the vast oceans of the earth, it can also take on up and down the many rivers of the world which connect cities, villages, towns and cultures, revealing a fascinating variety of vessels, architecture, flora and fauna. Join us as we take a journey with our artists to some well-known rivers, canals and waterways...
There is hardly anything more mysteriously beautiful than an early morning mist quietly rising on a still river, something captured hew by artist Robert Blazek.
The waterways and canals of Venice. Italy are perhaps the most famous and most photographed of any in the world with boat traffic ranging from sweep oar-powered gondolas to Vaporetto taxis, and even cruise ships, everything in Venice moves by water. This painting by A.D. Blake shows Venice in the early morning in the mid-1700s.
The Damariscotta River in Maine flows 19 miles from the charming town of Damariscotta into the Gulf of Maine. Near the mouth is the beautiful town of East Boothbay, home to well-known mega-yacht builders Hodgden Yachts, Gaudy and Stevens Builders of Steel Moran Tugs, and Nat Wilson Master Sailmaker. This charming painting by Len Mizerek depicts a private dock on the river just south of the town.
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
The Mississippi River flows some 2,320 miles from its source in Minnesota through ten states until it empties into the Gulf of Mexico at Now Orleans. Over the centuries it has become much more than a quantity of moving water, and taken on a life of its own to become the subject of books, legends and songs - from Huckleberry Finn, to Old Man River to the Broadway play Showboat! These two beautiful paintings by Robert Sticker (1922-2011), depict the handsome steamboats which traveled the Mississippi and her 250 tributary rivers at the turn of the century, and the work they did.
The river bottom shifted constantly, so riverboat pilots couldn't count on safe passage based on regular channels. Each voyage through a bend or area known for shifting meant having to "sound" the bottom, which involved dropping a lead weight on a line to mark the depth of the water as a boat slowly moved ahead, as seen to this painting above. The ‘leadsmen' would call out or ‘sound’ out the depth as to "quarter less ta-ree, halt twain, quarter twain, mark twain" etc. Yes, that's where Samuel Clemens found his writing name Mark Twain, which means the water is twelve feet deep. The painting above by Robert Sticker is called The Sounding Party, Steamboat REPUBLIC.
The Island of Manhattan
Standing at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan, if you look to the east toward Brooklyn you would be looking across the East River. If you turned to the west toward New Jersey your gaze would cross over the Hudson River. Just imagine the number of large and small vessels that have moved people and goods across those rivers over time, for the population of the city that never sleeps!
Empire City, New York in 1899
This painting by Patrick O’Brien shows busy river traffic on the East River. We are looking over Brooklyn to Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge was the tallest structure in America at the time. On the left side of the painting is where the South Street Seaport is today.
East River Traffic by Don Demers
Bark in Kill Van Kull, 1915 by Victor Mays (1927-2015)
The Hudson River
This stunning painting by William Muller of the fabled steamship New York reflects the elegance of travel on the Hudson River between Manhattan and Albany at the end of the 19th century. Built in 1887 to transport passengers, the New York was decorated lavishly inside which prompted her and the other ships of the Hudson River Day Liners to become known as the "Floating Galleries of Art." In keeping with this tradition in 1993 the owners of the modern Day Line commissioned renowned New York steamship artist William Muller to create this painting to hang aboard the New York-Albany boat for the enjoyment of its passengers, which it did for many years.
Located along the Hudson Riven fifty miles north of Manhattan, strategically located West Point is the oldest continuous Army post in America, having been first occupied by a New York militia in 1776 and then by General Samuel Holden's brigade on January 27, 1778. to defend against the British. In fact, he laid a large iron chain across the river in 1778 at the bend of West Point to prevent British ships from going up river. Here artist Louis Dodd (1943-2006) shows us the view looking north in 1868 with Union ships USS MACEDONIA and USS SAVANNAH anchored in the river while traffic passes by.
At the turn of the century, Greenwich, CT was a farming community supplying produce to the markets of New York. At that time all cargos shipped in coastal sloops from landings like this, up and down both sides of Long Island Sound. The princrole crop originally was potatoes. though later on, after more land had been well cleared, the variety of crops shipped out of Cos Cob Landing widened to include hay and grain, poultry, butter, cattle, sheep and hogs. After the Civil War apples were extensively raised in the area. One particular week's records listed shipments of 6,500 barrels. Like the scene in Hartford in the John Stobart painting "The City of Hartford Arriving in 1870," this locale has become nearly invisible due to building for modern transportation. Four concrete pylons that support the highway I-95 cross this of today. However one hundred years ago this space was one of the countless little ports that existed to serve the towns and villages along the water's route. This quiet vision of the past, while not important in any big historical picture, returns a sense of the integrity and beauty of the community that once lived here. John Stobart was drawn to the scene by an old etching that included the odd-shaped grist mill with a lone doorway at the river's end of its roof. From this, the world of the lower landing at Cos Cob in 1895 comes to life today.
The beauty of the golden morning light, still low in the sky conveys Stobart's love of uncovering the beauty of unpretentious settings. Every object, regardless of its importance, is given candid attention. Like the sun’s warmth, Stobart enjoyment of recreating a world from such small relics of the past pervades every corner of the composition.
