Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Montgomery, AL
334-244-5700
Ship to Shore: Marine Paintings from the Butler Institute of American Art
January 8 - February 27, 2000
Standing on a shore and looking out to sea can conjure up a variety
of compelling images from roguish men manipulating their way through rough
seas to scenes of immigrants arriving upon the shores of a new homeland.
American artists have captured this general fascination with marine culture
since colonial times. The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to present
Ship to Shore: Marine Paintings from the Butler Institute of American
Art, a traveling exhibition of approximately sixty works of art from
the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio. (left: William Trost Richards (1833-1905),
Land's End, Cornwall, 1888, oil on canvas)
During the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, artists were
commissioned to produce portraits of 
sailing vessels, which were instruments of commerce,
transportation, and physical power. Some of the finest examples of marine
portraiture were created in the 19th century by artists such as Thomas Birch, James
E. Buttersworth, and Antonio
Jacobsen. (right: Joseph H. Boston, Silver Moonlight,
1915, oil on canvas)
America's affinity for its coastlines was demonstrated
by turn-of-the-century leisure activities. 
As cities became crowded, waterfront retreats were
the destination for the growing middle class. In the early 20th century,
studies of nature, as in the meditative seascapes by Emil
Carlson and Frederick
Judd Waugh, were still prevalent. However, ocean views used as background
for reclining, active, or introspective figures became more commonplace.
Artists like Augustus
Vincent Tack, William
Glackens, and George
Grosz utilized these subjects. Other 20th century representations
of coastal life range from Stuart
Davis' cubist harbor buildings that obliterate any actual view of
the coast to Reginald
Marsh's representation of the American scene movement portraying
the energy and realities of New York City's harbor. (left: James
E. Buttersworth (1817-1894), Valparaiso , c.1855, oil on canvas)
The works comprising this exhibition are drawn from the
permanent collection of the Butler Institute of 
American Art. The museum's founder, industrialist
Joseph G. Butler, Jr., was an early collector of marine works and ship portraiture.
His response to the marine genre was one of a genteel patron paying homage
to the majesty and power of the earliest American fleets. Throughout the
past 75 years of the Butler's existence, the marine collection has been
enhanced by continuous acquisitions of historical ship portraiture and works
of art reflecting the mystery and beauty of marine culture. (left:
William Bradford (1823-1892), Afternoon on the Labrador Coast, 1878,
oil on canvas)
The exhibition, sponsored locally by Jim Wilson & Associates, Inc., Fred & Bess Blackmon, and Colonial Bank, will be on view in the Young Gallery through February 27, 2000.
For more information on this traveling exhibition see From Ship to Shore: Marine Paintings (6/4/99)
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