Matthews Gallery

Les Saintes - Maries - de - la -Mer (Detail)  -  Vincent van Gogh 1888

Post-impressionism

“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”    ―Vincent van Gogh

More art history.

1. Gustave Le Gray, The French Fleet, Cherbourg, 1858, Albumen silver print, 30.8 x 39.1 cm, The J. Paul Getty Museum, LA. Source

2. Gustave Le Gray, The French Fleet at Cherbourg, 5 August 1858, 1858, Albumen print, 30.9 x 41 cm, Royal Collection, London. Source

3. Jules Achille Noël, Napoleon III Receiving Queen Victoria at Cherbourg, 5 August 1858, 1859, oil on canvas, 164.5 x 22.85 cm, National Maritime Museum, London. Source

On 5th August 1858, Queen Victoria and her husband Albert arrived on the shores of Cherbourg, France for a state visit. Gustave Le Gray’s hauntingly beautiful photographs show the British vessel amongst the French fleet of Napoleon III, (the Emperor and his wife Eugénie had come to Cherbourg the previous day.) Jules Achille Noël’s painting depicts a seascape banquet, hosted by Napoleon, taking place on the French ship ‘Bretagne’.

Queen Victoria arrives, in photographs and a painting.

The beach and pier at Trouville  -  Raoul Dufy 1905

“When I feel a little confused, the only thing to do is to turn back to the study of nature before launching once again into the subjects closest to heart.“ -Raoul Dufy

More art history.

Henry Lee

Sea Fables Explained

1883

"These old pictures appear, no doubt, ridiculous, but they are, really, very little more absurd and untrue to nature than many of those which disfigure some otherwise useful books on Natural History of the present day." 

-Henry Lee, keepin' it real

More art & history. 

Forth and Back, George Wesley Bellows

Glorious. Reminds us of this Edgar Payne painting.

J. M. W. Turner, Snow Storm: Steamboat off a Harbour’s Mouth, exhibited 1842, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 121.9 cm, Tate Collection. Source

The story goes that Turner painted this particular stormy seascape whilst physically tied to the mast of a second ship. This is pretty unlikely, not to mention ridiculous, but the fact that the artist was able to recreate a scene as dramatic and terrifying as this is still a remarkable feat, and reminds the viewer of Turner’s natural talent.

Amazing. 

More on Turner. 

Edouard Manet, Sketches of Marine Scenes, n.d.,Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper 

Gorgeous. 

More art history. 

Born on this day (07/11/1834): James McNeill Whistler.

“The Return of the Fishing Boat”, c.1885.

Happy birthday, Whistler!

Learn about the artist's printmaking here. 

Landscape paintings of James Abbott McNeill Whistler