Michael Strang Robinson (1910–1999) was Keeper of Pictures at the National Maritime Museum, London, England. He was an expert on the paintings of Willem van de Velde, the elder and Willem van de Velde, the younger. [1] [2]
Robinson was born in Hamble, Hampshire, England on 20 April 1910. His father, Gregory Robinson, was a painter of seascapes and a founder of the Society for Nautical Research, of which Michael Robinson later became honorary vice-president. As a child, he was a frequent sailor, and as a student at London University, he took a job cataloguing prints for the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. He was hired by the National Maritime Museum in 1934. Robinson joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1930, and during World War II he served in the Special Boat Section of the British Royal Navy. He was captured in Leros, and eventually taken to Stalag IV-B, where he started to learn Dutch. Returning to the National Maritime Museum after the war, Robinson became head of department in 1947. He died in London on 24 December 1999. [1]
Robinson became an MBE in 1959. He was awarded the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum in 1985. He became a member of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1990. [1]
The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, it has no general admission charge; there are admission charges for most side-gallery temporary exhibitions, usually supplemented by many loaned works from other museums.
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam (1745–1816), and comprises one of the best collections of antiquities and modern art in western Europe. With over half a million objects and artworks in its collections, the displays in the Museum explore world history and art from antiquity to the present. The treasures of the museum include artworks by Monet, Picasso, Rubens, Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Van Dyck, and Canaletto, as well as a winged bas-relief from Nimrud. Admission to the public is always free.
Willem van de Velde the Younger was a Dutch marine painter, the son of Willem van de Velde the Elder, who also specialised in maritime art.
Ludolf Bakhuizen was a German-born Dutch painter, draughtsman, calligrapher and printmaker. He was the leading Dutch painter of maritime subjects after Willem van de Velde the Elder and Younger left for England in 1672. He also painted portraits of his family and circle of friends.
Willem van de Velde the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age seascape painter.
Simon de Vlieger was a Dutch painter, draughtsman and designer of tapestries, etchings, stained glass windows. While he is mainly known for his marine paintings he also painted beach scenes, landscapes and genre scenes.
Esaias van de Velde was a Dutch landscape painter.
On 18–19 December 1669, a battle took place in the waters near Cádiz between the English fourth-rate frigate Mary Rose under the command of Rear-Admiral John Kempthorne, escorting several merchantmen, and a group of seven pirate ships operating out of Algiers. The incident was recorded and drawn by the engraver Wenceslaus Hollar, with an engraving appearing in John Ogilby's Africa.
Marine art or maritime art is a form of figurative art that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre particularly strong from the 17th to 19th centuries. In practice the term often covers art showing shipping on rivers and estuaries, beach scenes and all art showing boats, without any rigid distinction - for practical reasons subjects that can be drawn or painted from dry land in fact feature strongly in the genre. Strictly speaking "maritime art" should always include some element of human seafaring, whereas "marine art" would also include pure seascapes with no human element, though this distinction may not be observed in practice.
Willem van Herp (I) or Willem van Herp the Elder was a Flemish Baroque painter specializing in religious paintings and small cabinet paintings of "low-life" genre scenes. He operated a large workshop and through his good connections with Antwerp art dealers helped spread the Flemish Baroque style internationally.
Kingfisher was a 46-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Phineas Pett III at Woolwich Dockyard and launched in 1675. She was specially designed to counter the attacks of Algerine corsairs, or pirates, in the Mediterranean by masquerading as a merchantman, which she achieved by hiding her armament behind false bulkheads. She also was provided with various means of changing her appearance.
Marten van Cleve the Elder was a Flemish painter and draftsman active in Antwerp between 1551 and 1581. Van Cleve is mainly known for his genre scenes with peasants and landscapes, which show a certain resemblance with the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Marten van Cleve was one of the leading Flemish artists of his generation. His subjects and compositions were an important influence on the work of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and other genre painters of his generation.
Hendrick Dubbels or Hendrick Jacobsz. Dubbels and variants (1621–1707) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of marine subjects and winter landscapes, who spent much of his career working in the studios of other marine artists.
Jan van de Velde the younger was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver of animal, landscape and still-life subjects. He was the son of Jan van de Velde the Elder and the father of the still life painter Jan Jansz van de Velde.
Samuel Scott was a British landscape painter known for his riverside scenes and seascapes.
Charles Brooking (c.1723–59) was an English painter of marine scenes.
Marine art was especially popular in Britain during the Romantic Era, and taken up readily by British artists in part because of England'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.
Jan van de Cappelle was a Dutch Golden Age painter of seascapes and winter landscapes, also notable as an industrialist and art collector. He is "now considered the outstanding marine painter of 17th century Holland". He lived all his life in Amsterdam, and as well as working as an artist spent much, or most, of his time helping to manage his father Franchoy's large dyeworks, which specialized in the expensive dye carmine, and which he eventually inherited in 1674. Presumably because of this dual career, there are fewer than 150 surviving paintings, a relatively small number for the industrious painters of the Dutch Golden Age. His marine paintings usually show estuary or river scenes rather than the open sea, and the water is always very calm, allowing it to act as a mirror reflecting the cloud formations above; this effect was Cappelle's speciality.
Sir Bruce Stirling Ingram MC D.Litt. was a publishing entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the editor of The English Illustrated Magazine, The Sketch, and The Illustrated London News from 1900 to 1963. Ingram was credited with introducing greater use of photography in the News and introducing the Rembrandt Regalio process which enabled faster printing of the paper.
Roger Charles Anderson was an independently-wealthy English maritime historian, collector, and a leading figure in the early years of the Society for Nautical Research and of the Navy Records Society. Four times editor of the Mariner's Mirror, Anderson was also a founder trustee, and later chairman of the board of trustees, of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and held the higher Doctor of Letters degree. In 2005, the Swedish naval historian Jan Glete characterised Anderson as "one of the most important naval historians of the twentieth century. He mainly wrote about early modern warship technology and used his linguistic skills to write books and essays based on the literature from several countries."