London
1825
Hand coloured aquatint by Thomas Sutherland after William John Huggins
25 x 30 inches (63.5 x 76.2 cm) including frame
Provenance: Donald Stanley Marshall, Salem, Massachusetts
The plate shows the British whalers Amelia Wilson and Castor off the island of Buru in the Moluccas, the nearer ship lying under shortened sail with her boats away and the crew cutting in a carcass alongside. In the foreground a sperm whale rears out of the water with a whale boat broken beneath it and men thrown into the sea, while other boats pull hard toward the animal and a second whale rolls dead on the swell. Beyond them the water carries further boats and a distant vessel, with the mountainous coast of the island closing the horizon under a bank of cumulus that fills the upper half of the sheet.
The engraved title runs beneath the image with a lettered description of the ships and of the manner in which sperm whales were taken, cut in, and the oil boiled on deck. The plate is dedicated to the owners of the two ships and carries the London publication line of W. J. Huggins at Leadenhall Street, dated 1825. It is recorded as Ingalls 103 and Brewington 188.
William John Huggins, 1781 to 1845, was a marine painter and ship portraitist who worked in London from 1814 until his death. He went to sea early in his career with the East India Company, sailing widely and serving in a range of capacities, and that first hand knowledge of ships underlies the accuracy of his later work. He was appointed marine painter to King William IV, and his compositions were widely engraved, with the whaling subjects among the most sought after of the prints after him.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
London
1825
Hand coloured aquatint by Thomas Sutherland after William John Huggins
25 x 30 inches (63.5 x 76.2 cm) including frame
Provenance: Donald Stanley Marshall, Salem, Massachusetts
The plate shows the British whalers Amelia Wilson and Castor off the island of Buru in the Moluccas, the nearer ship lying under shortened sail with her boats away and the crew cutting in a carcass alongside. In the foreground a sperm whale rears out of the water with a whale boat broken beneath it and men thrown into the sea, while other boats pull hard toward the animal and a second whale rolls dead on the swell. Beyond them the water carries further boats and a distant vessel, with the mountainous coast of the island closing the horizon under a bank of cumulus that fills the upper half of the sheet.
The engraved title runs beneath the image with a lettered description of the ships and of the manner in which sperm whales were taken, cut in, and the oil boiled on deck. The plate is dedicated to the owners of the two ships and carries the London publication line of W. J. Huggins at Leadenhall Street, dated 1825. It is recorded as Ingalls 103 and Brewington 188.
William John Huggins, 1781 to 1845, was a marine painter and ship portraitist who worked in London from 1814 until his death. He went to sea early in his career with the East India Company, sailing widely and serving in a range of capacities, and that first hand knowledge of ships underlies the accuracy of his later work. He was appointed marine painter to King William IV, and his compositions were widely engraved, with the whaling subjects among the most sought after of the prints after him.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
