Ship, Sea & Sky: The Marine Art of James Edward Buttersworth
A skilled genre painter of the mid-nineteenth century, Buttersworth--along with many competitors of the palette on the East Coast--worked when steam displaced sail, the elegant clipper ship reigned (briefly) supreme, and after the Civil War, when speedy yachts became popular. He effaced his personality more accurately to portray marine architecture, but he was no dullard "pierhead" painter. His imagination dramatized the setting, depicting heeling vessels in stormy weather, for example, that set off his capable rendering of the protean seascape, with its scudding clouds, wind-whipped waves, and fractious light. Such are the art qualities curator Grassby notes in this quaint and pleasing album, which accompanies an exhibition assembled by New York's popular South Street Seaport Museum that travels next to Salem, Massachusetts, and Chicago. There are 50 of Buttersworth's best here. Attactive historical art, this book will be sure bait in seaside stores; it ought to arrest gazes in dockside libraries, too.Gilbert Taylor