A painted portrait of the Racing Yacht MAYFLOWER, directly from the year of her most glorious campaign for owner General Charles J. Paine in the 1886 Defense of the America’s Cup. Having defeated .PRISCILLA and the New York Club’s other potential defenders in the August trials, MAYFLOWER met Lieut. William Henn’s GALATEA, the first steel challenger for the Cup, on Sept. 7. In light airs, MAYFLOWER handedly defeated the Royal Northern Yacht Club of Scotland’s challenger, both on the inside and outside New York courses.

A sensation of movement is achieved by the artist, the racing cutter is raked back at speed under a sky brightening with the rising marine layer, while the water is very active. Paine’s private signal flies high, and his royal blue coated presence is noticeable amongst the crew dressed in whites. Two schooners and another racing cutter share the water off New York.

Built in 1886 by George Lawley’s City Point Yard in Boston from the design of Edward Burgess, MAYFLOWER followed their successful syndicate project led by Paine and J. Malcolm Forbes with PURITAN, the defender of the 1885 challenge. They both possessed deeper hulls with lead ballast on the outside, overhanging sterns and modified cutter rigs, greatly changing yacht design to a far more capable boat in all weather. MAYFLOWER was 100' with a 85½’ waterline, 23½’ beam and a 9'9" draft that extended down 20' with the centerboard. She was not successful in her first matches, but after some adaptations, by August she was unbeatable, winning not only the trials and the Cup, but every match she raced the rest of the year. Paine most likely directly commissioned this great portrait in her honor and lasting memory.

This is an extremely well done narrative ship portrait by one of the more elusive American marine painters, Joseph B. Smith. The schooner AURELIA P. HOWE, named after the daughter of a Manhattan business family, launched in 1845 out of Baltimore, Maryland and worked in the Chesapeake and Atlantic coastwise trade. Shown in her early glory, the schooner would be part of a legal battle in 1858, disappearing from the news to surface for Civil War charter service.

The painting is a well performed composition, with the primary subject crisply detailed and proudly showing her tell-tale flags, the artistic hand of Smith clearly evident. The charm of the setting, we believe off the New York coast, includes a top-sail schooner, other fore-and-aft rigs, a white-hulled, walking-beam sidewheel steamer, and two very animated men making the most of the day fishing, a touch which is a very unusual addition to a ship portrait. The schooner’s crew is on deck, and there’s a nice sense of motion to the ship in the water. Another near identical Smith painting of the schooner is known, closer to a shore without most of the supporting cast. Our painting has a New York artist supply label verso from 1835-1865.

The schooner would be in a New York Times brief in 1858, when Andrew F. Higgins acquires partial title to it in settlement of an account of Master William Tilby. Later, in 1863, soldiers of Company C, the Fifty-First Volunteer Regiment of Massachuset would use it for transport out of Baltimore during the Civil War, recording their voyages in several published letters. Miss Aurelia Perry Howe married mariner Moses Kelley Glines, and their son George would be born in Baltimore in 1849, quite possibly while his parents or grandparents owned the merchant schooner.

A scene of universal appeal, two sailing men find themselves looking from the stern of their vessel to the larger companion ship upon a driven Pacific Ocean. The artist Armin Hansen was well familiar with the challenges of sailing vessels, having crewed aboard ships out of Belgium and Germany in the early 20th Century. With a minimalists approach, Hansen is remarkably able to translate the cool weather, driven speed and human determination in this Impressionist painting. Crashing swells collide with the hulls, and the segmented views of both ships tell of the deep troughs and rising pitch and roll of the sea, with its great translucent light.

Lush green tones, deep and pale, dominate the canvas, while the brief flashes of yellows and reds create highlights of interest. There is a hidden level of technical brushwork, making what first appears to be a casual painting into an exacting and well-thought out composition. It is a day of heavy atmosphere, the sailors in wet weather gear, a block pulled nearly horizontal by an out-of-sight sail. The tools of the fishing trade occupy space, while an interesting and eye-catching anchor globe lantern floats on a line up a flag staff. Hansen was acquainted with the many fishermen of the Monterey area in the commercial business, and we join him in viewing their efforts in this exceptional painting, done after his membership in the National Academy.

The skillful combination of beautiful sky, picturesque background and accurately rendered vessel make this work an excellent example of the artistic ship portrait style of James Bard. The WILLIAM HARRISON is portrayed decked out with four prominent American flags and her gilded Pilot House Carved Eagle as she makes her way up the Hudson River.

This work concentrates fully on presenting an undistracted image of the steamboat, showing no passengers, a device Bard used throughout the later and most important period of his career. Note the classic perspective that draws the eye unerringly to the center of the composition and the use of tiny white dots making up the spray off the bow and paddlewheel to show movement. The original paint is in such excellent condition that the detailed touches of raised, thick oil are visible to the eye and the flags, windows, eagle, and elsewhere.

The 377.67 ton WILLIAM HARRISON [153'LOA x 26.2'B x 8.8D] was built at Keyport, New Jersey in 1864 by Benjamin Terry for C.W. Copeland of the Citizens Transportation Company. The vessel’s namesake, William Harrison, owner of the company that fabricated her vertical beam steam engine, was the original owner of this painting.

Captured by Moran, a brig under her full flight of sail is ready to brave the open sea away from Manhattan and Governors Islands in the excellent composition of this painting by New York master Edward Moran. A coastal schooner catches a tug boat tow, while several sailing yachts and a large steam liner reside along the horizon, accented by the rosy hue of the sunlight on the red sandstone of Castle Williams on the island headland.

Moran spent many of his professional days along New York’s harbor, and he painted scenes which venture beyond the work of the period’s traditional marine artists and ship portraitists. Even at this distance he presents an accurate depiction of the 40 foot-high walls of the round fort that rests across from Castle Garden and Battery Park. Interesting that Governors Island was one of the first New York locations to be settled and the castle, built in 1811, never fired a shot in warfare. The island was sold to the state of New York in 2003 by George W. Bush.

It bodes well for the sailors that the cloud bank behind them is full and billowy, showing that a the wind is most likely rising. A significant bonus is the artistic taste of Moran when it came to choosing frames for his paintings. The original ornate gilt that he selected is still with this fine work showing the diversity and activity of historic New York.

Sharp lined and capable, the Maine-built Ship BYZANTIUM owns interesting moments of maritime history. In this 1861 working portrait, she is running to Liverpool in company with a British ship, both fighting a surging storm sea. Ten men are visible on deck, attentive to the challenge of controlling a large sailing ship in such conditions, her lower main and fore sails employed with a single jib sail.

Built in 1856 in Warren, Maine, the 1048-ton BYZANTIUM ran the first-ever load of Honduran sugar to Europe, 100 barrels, in 1857. The ship served the short-lived Eastern Line of New York of Songey, Smith & Co. in 1858 on a run to Liverpool, and prior to the 1860s sailed for the Brigham Line between New York, New Orleans and Europe. Throughout it all, she was captained by American W.R. Hilton, who remained a principle partner in all aspects of the ship. It is likely that Captain Hilton and owner C. Carey were involved in the direct commissioner of this painting from Tudgay. Another portrait of BYZANTIUM off Dover was painted by the artist in 1861, both with the tight deck detail that is a signature element of Frederick Tudgay’s paintings.

American ships packets dominated the transatlantic trade from 1818 until the Civil War, and it was with these ship owners that the Tudgay family found most of their commissions. BYZANTIUM served faithfully, until she was captured and burnt by Confederate Officer Lt. Charles W. Read during his run in 1863 off Nantucket and Maine, where he destroyed more than 20 vessels in less than three weeks.