Provenance

James Brown

1791 - 1877

Explore selected works

A large, dark sailing ship to our left is stranded near the shore, angled dramatically away from us, in choppy waves under a periwinkle-blue sky streaked with gray and copper-colored clouds in this horizontal painting. Two tall masts on the ship angle steeply away, showing that the boat nearly lies on its side. The third mast is broken. The rigging is askew and the sails are tattered. Light catches a steel-blue band around the deck. Broken pieces of masts, swaths of limp, gray sails, thick rope, and a wooden barrel on its side are scattered along the beach in front of us. Bottle-green waves break gently on the beach, but white foam kicks up around the hull. Low, bronze-brown rocks jut outwards from the beach to our left. To our right, a pale, yellow sun glows hazily just over the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the canvas. The dark gray clouds brighten to pale yellow, lavender purple, and mauve pink along the edges and near the sun. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had inscribed a board lying in the shadow cast by the barrel in the lower right corner: “A.B.Durand 1884.”
Asher Brown Durand, The Stranded Ship, 1844, oil on canvas, Gift of Ann and Mark Kington/The Kington Foundation through Millennium Funds, 2003.71.1

The Stranded Ship

Asher Brown Durand · 1844 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2003.71.1

This painting depicts three individuals in a room. An elderly man is seated on a wooden chair, reading a newspaper, with a child standing beside him. The man has balding gray hair, round spectacles, and is dressed in a black suit. The child, wearing a bright blue coat and hat, faces the man with their back toward us. They have short blond hair that falls to their shoulders in soft ringlets. The man looks down at the child with a slight smile. On the right, a woman in a black dress sits on another chair, knitting. She looks up toward the man and child. All three of these people have light skin. The room around them has red curtains, white paneled walls, rich brown furniture, and an ornate white fireplace on the far right.
Eastman Johnson, The Brown Family, 1869, oil on paper on canvas, Gift of David Edward Finley and Margaret Eustis Finley, 1978.72.1

The Brown Family

Eastman Johnson · 1869 · oil on paper on canvas ·  Accession ID  1978.72.1