MARINE ART: The Ship Paintings of James Edward Buttersworth

The Ship Paintings of James Edward Buttersworth

(Based on wikipedia)

James Edward Buttersworth (1817–1894) was an English painter who specialized in maritime art and is considered among the foremost American ship portraitists of the nineteenth century.[1] His paintings are particularly known for their meticulous detail, dramatic settings, and grace in movement.

Early life and education

Buttersworth was born in London, England in 1817 to a family of maritime artists. He studied painting with his father Thomas Buttersworth Jr., who was also noted for the genre.

Career

He moved to the United States around 1845 and settled in West Hoboken, New Jersey (now Union City, New Jersey),[2] and also maintained a Brooklyn studio in 1854. He returned to England in 1851 for the Race for the Hundred Pound Cup that took place on 22 August 1851. His sketches and paintings of that yachting competition provide the definitive record of events in that benchmark season of sailing.

Buttersworth’s paintings of the 1893 Vigilant vs. Valkyrie II Cup match were done one year before his death, completing the chronicling of America's Cup races by oil painting just before the advent of successful photographic imagery. He was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1999. About 600 of his pieces survive today, which are found in private collections and museums all over the United States, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Virginia, and have also been featured on the television series Antiques Roadshow.[3]

Gallery

Magic and Gracie off Castle Garden (c. 1871), in the collection at The Mariners' Museum

Steamboat Escort off the battery (1863) in the collection at The Mariners' Museum

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Molly Kool`s Ashes Return Home to the Bay of Fundy Today

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The ashes of the first woman in North America to become a licensed ship captain will be scattered at sea Sunday (July 5, 2009) in the Bay of fundy off New Brunswick.

Learn more about Molly Kool here.

Photo Credit: Not attributed.

Molly Kool - Fundy Legend Dies at 93

More at: http://www.robmooremp.com/070107_02.htm

Molly Kool was the first female sea captain in North America
Born in N.B., Kool died in Bangor at 93
By The Canadian Press
Sun. Mar 1 - 5:42 AM

MONCTON, N.B. — Molly Kool, the first woman in North America to become a registered sea captain, died Wednesday. She was 93.

Kool was born in 1916 in Alma, N.B., and spent the first 30 years of her life there. She had been living in Bangor, Maine, for years when she died.

"She was a real pioneer in the status of women and she tackled something absolutely unheard of," said Ken Kelly, president of the Fundy Beautification and Historical Society.

Kelly was a friend of Kool and would visit her in Bangor once a year. She would also regularly come stay with him and his wife in Alma.

Kool tried to enrol in navigation school in Saint John, N.B., but was initially turned away because no woman in North America had ever obtained her mate’s papers.

She persisted and was eventually admitted.

She passed her mate’s papers in 1937 at the age of 21 and passed her master’s exam a couple of years later, receiving her master’s certificate and the title of captain.

"She was a New Brunswick girl and she really overcame a lot. It’s a hell of a story," said Kelly. "She had to earn every bit of what she had and there was a lot of resistance in those days, but she stood her ground and fared well."

Rita Hopper, also a friend of Kool, said some men in the shipping industry didn’t agree with a woman being captain of a ship, while others were fine with it.

She said Kool had the personality to handle any troublemakers.

"She was tough," recalled Hopper. "Nothing would bother her and you could dare her to do anything and she would.

"She wouldn’t take nothing from nobody and she would let you have it. She didn’t care."