Thomas Hoyne

Thomas Hoyne served his naval career in the Pacific Theater as a gunnery officer on the L.S.T. 48. This experience was undoubtedly crucial to the development of his superior knowledge and feel for the sea. Not only did Mr. Hoyne possess a thorough understanding of the anatomy of oceans — of currents, waves, wind, and the enormous weight of water; he also had an instinctive sense of the poetry of the sea. His point of view was quite unlike that of any other marine painter, and he developed a distinctive, recognizable style and identity all his own.

 Mr. Hoyne’s interest in the romance of the great sailing and fishing vessels began during his childhood when he spent summers at his grandmother’s cottage in Ogunquit on the southeast coast of Maine. Early in his painting career, he was introduced by his grandmother to the legendary American marine painter Gordon Grant. He visited Grant’s studios in Gloucester and New York, and was greatly impressed by his work and his knowledge of ships. He also became familiar with the Cape Ann/Gloucester area of Massachusetts, and in 1938, he saw the movie “Captain Courageous.” The subject of the film was the Gloucester fishing fleet, and he was enthralled. He became immersed in the lore and traditions of the New England fishing industry, and began drawing the schooners and building models of fishing boats.

 This intense interest in the history and romance of these ships took him up and down the East Coast, visiting historical societies, museums and shipyards. He befriended shipbuilders, captains, crewmembers and historians. His travels aboard ships furnished him with invaluable research, and imbued his paintings with depth and incredible accuracy.

 Hoyne worked for most of his career in advertising as an illustrator in Chicago, but in mid-life, he changed paths and became a marine artist fulltime.  He specialized in landscapes, antique airplanes and cars and vintage ships. His work also included portraits of 16 American winners of the Nobel Prize for Science. Although he only painted for 17 years, he was considered to be one of the finest contemporary marine artists in the world until his death in 1989. He produced about 100 marine paintings, many of which have already found their way into major museum collections, including Mystic Seaport Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, and Maine Maritime Museum. While he painted many scenes depicting maritime activity, most of his work evoke the terrors and hardships of fishing from sailing vessels on the notoriously inhospitable Grand Bands of the northern Atlantic. In 2005, the Independent Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, PA, held a first ever retrospective of Hoyne’s works titled “Fishing on the Grand Banks: The Marine Art of Thomas Hoyne.” In conjunction with the exhibition, a 175-page catalogue titled “Wooden Ships and Iron Men” was published illustrating over 80 of Hoyne’s paintings. 

Many consider Hoyne’s greatest strength as a painter his ability to depict vessels realistically, showing how they went about their work along the fishing banks of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. It is said that the water shown in a Hoyne painting “feels” wet, a testament to the degree of realism the artist brought to his work. Eventually he turned his attention exclusively to sailing vessels. In 1983 he was awarded the Rudolph J. Schaefer Award at the Mystic International, an honor given to the artist whose work best documents our maritime heritage. Hoyne also became a founding fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists.