$138,000
Attributed to James E. Buttersworth (Anglo/American 1817-1894) Portrait of the Clipper Ship Game Cock. Unsigned. Oil on canvas, c. 1853, the clipper ship is portrayed off Sandy Hook, awaiting the arrival of a pilot boat to take her safely into New York Harbor, 30 x 42 in., framed. Condition: Relined, minor retouch. Provenance: Through direct descent in Captain Daniel Bacon's family, owner of the vessel. Note: The Game Cock was an extreme clipper ship designed by the famous naval architect Samuel Pook and built by Samuel Hall in East Boston for Daniel C. Bacon. The vessel was launched on December 21, 1850. Captain Bacon was one of Boston's leading sea captains and a very successful merchant. Buttersworth turned during the early 1850s to the painting of clipper ships. These fast and exciting vessels had captured the attention of the public during this period. This painting of the Game Cock shares the same compositional and stylistic manner Buttersworth used in his other well-known paintings of clipper ships such as the Westward Ho, Great Republic, Water Witch, and Dreadnaught. Literature: John Wilmerding, American Marine Painting, New York 1968; Rudolph J. Schaefer, J.E. Buttersworth 19th Century Marine Painter, Mystic Seaport, 1975; Richard B. Grassby, Ship, Sea, and Sky, the Marine Art of James Edward Buttersworth, South Street Seaport Museum, 1994.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2006-11-04
