George Webster was a 19th-century British Marine Art painter. He toured extensively and painted seascapes of the places he visited. His work was exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Academy.
George Webster was a 19th-century British Marine Art painter. He toured extensively and painted seascapes of the places he visited. His work was exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Academy.
Webster was active between the years of 1797 and 1832. [2]
Webster was a 19th-century artist who painted in the British Marine art style. [3] [4] He painted seascapes and ship portraits with versatility allowing him to capture both rivers, such as the Thames, and calm or stormy open waters. His work was influenced by the Dutch style and stood in some cases as a historical record as well as attractive sea art. [5]
In 1797, he started showing his paintings at galleries in London. His work was on show at the Royal Society of British Artists, the British Institution and the Royal Academy. [2]
Webster toured extensively and painted the seascapes upon which he travelled. Between 1803 and 1806 he toured Africa. He visited the West Coast of Africa and painted a seascape showing two British slave-ships taking on board enslaved people at Fort Christiansborg. [1] The fort was used to hold enslaved people before they were embarked onto slave ships to be used as forced labour in the Americas. The painting is held by the Danish Maritime Museum. [6] Webster drew a depiction of the English Fort at Dixcove in Ghana. [7] The fort was used to hold enslaved people who were then departed to plantations in the Americas. It was rebuilt and is part of the UNESCO's World Heritage Sites that pay tribute to the victims of slavery. [8] It is not known whether Webster travelled to Africa in any official capacity. [3]
Webster also published engravings. These included one of Captain James Lawrence of the United States frigate Chesapeake who died while engaged with the British ship Shannon on the first of June 1813. Webster remarked, "This Print is respectfully dedicated to the British Nation whose philanthropy is such as to esteem the Brave and Virtuous even in an Enemy." [9]
Webster painted at least two pictures of the Battle of Lissa (1811). Engravings of the pictures are held by the UK government at its British Embassy in Zagreb. [10]
The painting is oil on canvas and framed, it is owned by the Royal Museum Greenwich. [11]
A French Lugger and a Ship in The Downs is owned by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. [12]
A painting that depicts a ship battle taking place on 6 July 1809. Bonne Citoyenne is firing her cannons at Furieuse , whose mast is broken. [13]
This painting depicts the harbour at Portsmouth in England. It is held by The National Trust at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire. [14]
This painting is held by The National Trust at Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire. The painting is oil on canvas and was bought from the estate of Frederick Horton who formerly lived at Shrawley Wood House in London. [15]
Sudbury Hall is a country house in Sudbury, Derbyshire, England. One of the country's finest Restoration mansions, it has Grade I listed building status.
Sir John Hawkins was an English naval commander, naval administrator, privateer and slave trader.
The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods, which were then traded for slaves with rulers of African states and other African slave traders. Slave ships transported the slaves across the Atlantic. The proceeds from selling slaves were then used to buy products such as furs and hides, tobacco, sugar, rum, and raw materials, which would be transported back to Europe to complete the triangle.
Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset trade imbalances between different regions.
Dominic Serres (1722–1793), also known as Dominic Serres the Elder, was a French-born painter strongly associated with the English school of painting, and with paintings with a naval or marine theme. Such were his connections with the English art world, that he became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and was later briefly its librarian.
The Zong massacre was a mass killing of more than 130 enslaved African people by the crew of the British slave ship Zong on and in the days following 29 November 1781. The William Gregson slave-trading syndicate, based in Liverpool, owned the ship as part of the Atlantic slave trade. As was common business practice, they had taken out insurance on the lives of the enslaved Africans as cargo. According to the crew, when the ship ran low on drinking water following navigational mistakes, the crew threw enslaved Africans overboard.
The West Africa Squadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. Formed in 1808 after the British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act 1807 and based out of Portsmouth, England, it remained an independent command until 1856 and then again from 1866 to 1867.
The International Slavery Museum is a museum located in Liverpool, UK, that focuses on the history and legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. The museum which forms part of the Merseyside Maritime Museum, consists of three main galleries which focus on the lives of people in West Africa, their eventual enslavement, and their continued fight for freedom. Additionally the museum discusses slavery in the modern day as well as topics on racism and discrimination.
Norman Wilkinson was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolours and drypoint. He was primarily a marine painter, but also an illustrator, poster artist, and wartime camoufleur. Wilkinson invented dazzle painting to protect merchant shipping during the First World War.
Robert Salmon was a maritime artist, active in both England and America. Salmon completed nearly 1,000 paintings, all save one of maritime scenes or seascapes. He is widely considered the Father of American Luminism.
Bristol, a port city in south-west England, was involved in the transatlantic slave trade. Bristol's part in the trade was prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries as the city's merchants used their position to gain involvement. It is estimated that over 500,000 enslaved African people were traded by Bristol merchants.
Thomas Whitcombe was a prominent British maritime painter of the Napoleonic Wars. Among his work are over 150 actions of the Royal Navy, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution and the Royal Society of British Artists. His pictures are highly sought after today.
Isaac Sailmaker was an etcher and marine painter of the Baroque period, who had a long career in England. He was referred to in contemporary books and journals as "the father of British sea painting", but was eclipsed by his contemporaries, the Dutch marine painters Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son Willem van de Velde the Younger, who for a period dominated the London market. Sailmaker was commissioned by the English Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, to paint the English fleet at Fort-Mardyck.
Marine art was especially popular in Britain during the Romantic Era, and taken up readily by British artists in part because of Great Britain's geographical form. This article deals with marine art as a specialized genre practised by artists who did little or nothing else, and does not cover the marine works of the leading painters of the period, such as, and above all, J. M. W. Turner. The tradition of British marine art as a specialized genre with a strong emphasis on the shipping depicted began in large part with the artists Willem Van de Velde the Elder and his son, called the Younger in the early 18th century. The Van Veldes, originally from Holland, moved to England to work for King Charles II). By the 17th century, marine art was commissioned mostly by merchant seamen and naval officers and created by marine art specialists. In part, marine art served as a visual portrayal of Britain's power on the sea and as a way of historically documenting battles and the like. As British sea captains began to recognize the ability of marine artists to bring Britain's success on the sea to the public on land, some took on an active role in supporting this type of artwork. For example, marine artist Robert Cleveley was hired by Captain William Locker to work in HMS Thames as a clerk, and Captain Locker, interested in employing artists, is believed to have played a significant role in encouraging Cleveley to work as a marine painter. Captains would act as marine artists' patrons, commissioning them to paint portraits of themselves and pictures depicting important battles. A few significant marine artists who were supported in this way by naval officers are Nicholas Pocock, Thomas Luny, and George Chambers. William Hodges, for example, who was trained to draw at William Shipley's Academy, was hired by the Admiralty to finish his pictures from Cook's 1772 voyage for publication upon reaching home in 1775. Captains also commissioned artists to paint portraits of their ships.
Richard Ernst Eurich, OBE, RA was an English painter who worked as a war artist to the Admiralty in the Second World War and was also known for his panoramic seascapes and narrative paintings. These were often invested with a sense of mystery and wonder which have tended to set him apart from mainstream development of art in the twentieth century.
Donald Manson (1792–1880) was a renowned ice master and whaling captain in the northern reaches of the Arctic Ocean in the 19th century. He served on 42 whaling voyages as of 1854, and was first mate of the Sophia during the First Grinnell Expedition in 1850. He was hired as ice master for numerous expeditions for his skill of navigating the icy waters of Greenland and further north, including Edward Augustus Inglefield's 1853 expedition aboard HMS Phoenix. Manson also captained at least one voyage of Scottish emigrants to Pictou in Nova Scotia in 1842, and the pioneers praised him as "humane and gentlemanly." He served as Harbormaster of Peterhead from the 1840s until his death.
The brothers John Cantiloe Joy, and William Joy, were English marine artists, who lived and worked together. They belonged to the Norwich School of painters, considered to be a unique phenomenon in the history of British art and the most important school of painting of 19th century England.
George Case (1747–1836) was a British slave trader who was responsible for at least 109 slave voyages. Case was the co-owner of the slave ship Zong, whose crew perpetrated the Zong massacre. After the massacre, the ship owners went to court in an attempt to secure an insurance payout of £30 for each enslaved person murdered. A public outcry ensued and strengthened the abolition movement in the United Kingdom. In 1781, he became Mayor of Liverpool. After he died, the wealth generated by his slavery was bequeathed to the Case Fund by his grandson.
Thomas Earle (1754–1822) was an English slave trader. He was responsible for at least 73 slave voyages and alongside his brother he transported over 19,000 enslaved people. Of these 3,000 died on board his ships. One of his ships, Annabella, was seized by the British Crown for slave trading with the enemy. He was Mayor of Liverpool in 1787.
Nicholas Diddams (c.1760–1823) was a Master Shipwright mainly building for the Royal Navy.
Media related to George Webster at Wikimedia Commons