Flames burn through a three-masted ship caught in rough conditions in A Fire at Sea: Abandon Ship!, a mid-19th-century oil painting by an unknown artist. Near the burning ship are two lifeboats filled with crew members and passengers. The wind moves across the painting toward the burning ship, where smoke billows in large clouds above it. Darkness dominates the upper right corner, but sunbeams pushing through the clouds shine an almost direct light on the lifeboats, highlighting them at the center of the painting. The light creates a heavenly glow, as if to signal that the passengers will be okay.
According to Lyles Forbes, vice president of collections and chief curator at The Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Virginia, works by unidentified artists are as important to marine history as those produced by known artists. “The narrative captured in the painting is more important than the identity of the artist,” says Forbes.
In this piece, says Forbes, the artist has depicted the sea and sky quite realistically, so it can be assumed that the painter had experience with storms at sea, or even studied the sky. The painter also may have had experience with large and small boats—note, the rigging on the ship is accurate and painted to move correctly in the wind. When this work was created, it was common, and easier, to paint vessels from the side, yet this artist painted the ship from a different angle, while remaining true to the movement of the ship.
According to Forbes, A Fire at Sea: Abandon Ship! is similar in style to the works of Claude-Joseph Vernet and G.F. Delacroix. Their art, often commissioned by churches, was made to warn people of living in sin. In this way, shipwrecks in stormy seas were used as allegories. Perhaps this piece was painted with that intent. There is also a chance that the artist was depicting an event they bore witness to, or even experienced. In the age before photography, paintings served as firsthand accounts of events such as the one depicted here. This piece could be a record of an actual fire that occurred at sea.
While the painting’s creator is unknown, some information suggest its origins. The piece was sold at Bonham’s, an international auction house. Per Bonham’s, Robert P. Weimann, Jr. of Ansonia, Connecticut, advised the previous owners of the piece and has attributed the work to an artist with the last name De Grayley. — Lidia Goldberg
This article was originally published in the April 2023 issue.
