Joseph B. Smith (1863-1950) |
The ANNIE LEWIS, ca. 1863-76 |
| Oil on canvas, 24 x 40-1/4 inches |
| Signed lower right |
| Price: Upon Request |
If you wish further information, please email Christine Berry
|
Joseph B. Smith’s Marine Painting
“The Annie Lewis”: Research in Progress
Lisa N. Peters | Spanierman Blog | March 11, 2011
An intriguing marine painting has just arrived at the gallery, showing a proud two-masted schooner anchored in a harbor at sunrise. As verified by the signature in the painting’s lower left, it is by Joseph B. Smith (1798-1876), a ship and landscape renderer in oils and watercolors who was the son of the minister of New York’s John Street Methodist Church.* Smith spent his career in Brooklyn, where he opened a partnership known as “Joseph B. Smith and Son, Marine Artists” (his son was William S. Smith.) (The painting is inscribed “Brooklyn.”)
What is compelling in the painting is its extreme level of detail and crispness, revealing that the artist was a scrupulous eye-witness, who sought to present an unfolding narrative within the “ship portrait” tradition. Moving across the water toward the schooner is a small rowboat with two passengers aboard who converse as they paddle together toward the vessel that towers above them; the figure in white who turns around to talk to his companion is presumably the one who will be going aboard--only one suitcase is visible in the small boat. The Annie Lewis still has its rowboat firmly tethered, further indicating that the smaller vessel is approaching rather than bringing passengers to the shore. That the ship is about to embark is confirmed in the figures visible on its deck, who engage in readying it for departure: one is at the wheel, another ties down a sail, others work in pairs.
*Paintings by Smith belong to the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts (including a crisply rendered view of the American steamer Tom Hunt, built in 1851 and a stunning view of the American clipper ship Golden West entering New York, built in 1852); the New-York Historical Society; the Amon Carter Museum; the Everson Museum; and the Museum of the City of New York. A number of Smith’s paintings were turned into lithographs by Currier and Ives.
