The Coast and the Sea: Marine and Maritime Art in America

Opening Reception: May 9, 5:30 p.m.

Exhibition organized by the New-York Historical Society.

This exhibition features 61 of the most important American marine paintings and artifacts from the New-York Historical Society’s impressive maritime art collection. The works range in date from 1750 to 1904, by eminent marine artists like Thomas Birch, John Frederick Kensett and Charlton T. Chapman. Highlights include large format canvasses of famous sea battles, ships at work, and portraits of heroic sea captains and pioneering merchants, like the aptly named “Preserved Fish of New York.”

There are also maritime themed objects such as an engraved whale’s tooth from the mid-19th century, an octant from 1840, and a silver presentation urn commemorating acts of bravery from the War of 1812.

Features of this exhibit include paintings of major trading posts in and around the Pearl River Delta, including Hong Kong. Some of these paintings were by a group of Chinese artists working in the European style specifically for the export market. There are views of the Hudson River and the great Port of New York, as well as Gilded Age nostalgia for the great age of sail, with its clipper ships and majestic wind-jammers.

For more information, visit http://www.mattatuckmuseum.org.