On a well traveled path, the artist set his canvas to capture a view of the Italian fishing village of Cattora, believed to be a remote portion of what is now Greater Naples and the Isola D’Ischia on the horizon beyond. Note the moorish influence to the architecture in the small village and the red terra cotta rooftops, while the virgin forest grows right to the town.

A Mediterranean lateen-rigged fishing boat, with the rust-red & light beige sails often found on craft in these waters, cuts a perpendicular line to the inlet. Small commercial fisheries still exist today along the Italian shores, keeping their markets supplied with some of the freshest seafood in Europe. The people onshore are a bit less ambitious about their quests. As a woman walks the path, another pair catch a brief rest while they talk with mule driver. All four are dressed in colorful, late 19th century peasant garb.

Dommersen’s familiarity with many European regions led him to feel right at home throughout Europe. While most of his scenes are Dutch, his Italian works share a pastoral quality of soft illumination and relaxing emotion. Almost always of the coastal waters, he expertly combines landscape and atmosphere to paint compositions which translate the entirety of an area. Cattora has since grown and evolved into a much greater metropolis, but will remain ever charming in his view.

A bright afternoon along the coast of the Netherlands sets this marine narrative by Dommersen. No less than four fishing crews have chosen to land near the Tholen Lighthouse to sell their day’s catch. The foremost crew has captured the small market of women waiting across the stream, and two masts denote the presence of others just beyond the lighthouse. The prospect of quickly selling the herring and cod in the fourth ship’s hold seems slight today.

Dommersen, a Dutch national, embraced his homeland for its vast network of inlets, channels and rivers. The Netherlands hold a great shoreline to area ratio, and the low elevation along the North Sea ensures fine tidal access to much of it. The country’s dominant economic industry has always been fishing. These crews may sail along the Ooster Schelde waterway and arrive at the town of Bergen Op Zoom, where the tall church spire rise out of the horizon five miles distant.

Using tight realism with a focus on accurate scale and exacting reflective qualities, the artist excels in presenting the local character of the land. From the uniform white cloth bonnets and colorful fabrics of the women to the deep-rouge of the sail cloth, it all accents the central feature of the stone lighthouse. Note the old fortification wall the structure is built upon, a remnant from the days when holland warred with her neighbors, usually the English. By this day, the whale-oil light atop the exterior staircase would welcome the British ships and all other visitors.

In this large and appealing seascape, Samuel Phillips Jackson has portrayed a subject close to his heart, the tranquil shoreline of west Cornwall bay. The artist spent much of his time painting in and around the coasts of Devon and Cornwall and the majority of his works feature splendid views of these pleasant regions.

Jackson has employed in this work a talent for soft coloration and muted brush technique to bring out the subtle shadings and strong textures of an ever changing shoreline. The painting shows great depth in its composition and the artist has animated the overall scene with a gentle rolling surf and the ever present seabirds.

As a painter of sea and shore, Jackson excelled amongst his peers. His paintings show a closeness to nature that he developed through endless hours spent observing the watery environment and striving to capture its elusive character. The final product of his endeavors are the paintings that survive today in some of the world's most important collections.

A crisp view of an extremely rare detailed harbor scene of the American Northeast has two dockside gentlemen enjoying a clear view from the Mattapoisett Shore, looking southwest back toward Shell Beach and Fairhaven. Historically Mattapoisett and her neighbor to the northeast, Marion, formed with the City of Rochester into the community of Old Rochester. Ned’s Point Lighthouse stands guard at the harbor entrance. A black man watches from the fourth floor of the local sailmaker’s loft.

A lithographer as well as an artist, Bonar based out of New York City in the years 1847-60, and for an amount of time after that. He had a partnership with a Mr. Cummings, who remains further unidentified. While a few lithographic works survive by Bonar, this is an extremely rare original work to come up for sale in the public market. The scene is accomplished, with accuracy points that a professional engraver would include, such as the nice proportionate scale of the ocean-going tug boat running broadside, while the sleek-lined coastal schooner departs the local wharf, with other ships at their anchorages.

The region holds its small town charm today, with summer crowds of societies elite taking residence. In the 19th century, the shipyards and lumber mills of Old Rochester supported the whaling and fishing industries of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. The primary railroad connected to Marion in 1854, so the area rebounded quickly after the Civil War and the discovery of petroleum, more than some of the neighboring towns. This American scene by the artist is an accomplish look at one of the prominent harbors of greater Buzzards Bay.

A colorful pallette combined with a feathery brush technique mark this action filled image of two grand banks schooners rounding a mark in the International Fisherman’s Races off Lunnenberg Nova Scotia. Their top hampers full and straining with the press of wind filled canvas, the American and Canadian competitors define the meaning of the schooner term “fast and able”.

The first of these popular fishing schooner races began in 1920 after a challenge was sent to Gloucester by the Halifax Herald. The Essex built Esperanto was selected to challenge the Canadian champion Delawana. With a hand picked crew, Esperanto sailed to victory and the beginning of an 18 year rivalry that produced some of the most exciting races in history.

This expressive work captures all the nostalgia of an era that glorified the American fishing schooner. Built to spend the entire fishing season at sea and then utilize their great speed to be first in with the catch, these yacht-like vessels combined beauty and a hardworking seaworthiness that marked the apex of commercial sail and a exciting chapter in yacht racing.

Period yacht racing is a rare and desirable subject for marine paintings, and a 19TH Century work from Australia of this prime subject is among the rarest finds we may offer. The artist, Charles F. Gerrard, shows up in 1882 on the Sydney professional trade list as a painter, then as a marine artist and finally as simply ‘artist’. He exhibits his first works with the Royal Art Society in Sydney in 1884, consisting of coastal scenes. He is extremely well received by his contemporaries according to newspaper reports.

The recognizable features of “The Rocks”, along the western shore of Sydney cove near the harbor bridge, stands forth as a superb background for the racing yachts. This historic location is the foundation of the British Australian empire, and today is the oldest preserved colonial district in the country, described as “Sydney’s outdoor museum”.

Fine-lined cutter yachts compete over a sailing course, with two shown in great close detail while five more hold their positions in the regatta, as the rhythmic small swells are evidence the wind favors the leaders running on close reaches with the crossing tide. The crew and yachts are very much in the British formal yachting manner, with full uniforms and the plum-bow hulls. Note that there is one crew attired in red, possibly a naval marine team, and the sail steam ship anchored in the center flies the Australian Colonial Ensign proudly.