English School (Early 19th Century)

Artist: English School (Circa Early 19th Century).
Title: A Rough Crossing.
Medium: Oil on glass.
Framed Size: Height 24.5 cm x Width 30 cm x Depth 2.5 cm.
Image Size: Height 15 cm x Width 20.5 cm.
Condition: The painting is in good condition and commensurate with age, it has been opened, cleaned and resembled using the original materials and ensuring that the glass is secure. The original gilt frame is in good condition.
Provenance: Private Collection Sydney.

About: Oil on glass backed with opaque canvas, and in its original oval gilt frame, “A Rough Crossing” is a lovely dramatic and atmospheric seascape.

Marine art was considerably popular throughout Britain's Romantic era, with the subject commonly being explored by British artists due in part to the geographical location of England being an Island, as well as the prominent role Britain played in the trading of goods to both Europe, Asia and afar.

Also notably in relation to the British Navy, marine works were often visual displays of the power and prestige of British forces across the seven seas, as nautical paintings were considered powerful vessels for propaganda. Although this subject was explored around the same time throughout neighbouring Europe, British artists tend to dominate the genre with some of the most prominent names in western painting almost exclusively becoming known for marine works. These included JMW Turner, William Hodges and George Chambers.

This work is a marvellous example of reverse glass painting, a technique that dates back to the Byzantine Empire and was adopted during the Middle Ages to the Italian Renaissance and further on throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries, the technique is still being practised today. The image is painted verso to the glass and viewed through the front. This enables the artist to capture aesthetic variations to those that would be achievable on a panel or canvas, specifically in relation to the viewer’s perception of depth when using convex glass, as seen in this painting. With high quality, detailed examples becoming ever scarce due to the delicate nature of the painting’s support, this is a fine example of a late 18th, early 19th century maritime scene using a unique artistic process.