Cheshire Antiques Consultant

Victorian Oil Painting Four Masted Iron Merchant Ship Colony By Thomas G Purvis

£2,900.00

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Ahoy there matey! Step into a nautical-inspired world with this Victorian painting of a four-masted iron merchant ship named Colony. Whether you're an art enthusiast or a sea-faring enthusiast, this Thomas G Purvis creation will be sure to make you long for the open ocean! (Jump aboard if ya dare!
Subject seascape marine portrait of the famous four-masted sailing ship Colony, in full side profile view on the high rolling seas, sailing along choppy rough high seas, you can see the rigging and various sails. Having 4 masts, you can see the crew of sailors figures on the deck' to the bow and stern and also a couple of lifeboats along the side near the centre. You can also see the name of the ship on the bow & also on the stern colony. With mainly dark gray skies overhead with a few lighter patches coming through.
Title "Colony".
Oil on canvas.
Circa early beginning of 20th century, 1900 and end of the Victorian era.
Set in a beautiful traditional original oak frame.
Signed by the well known artist Thomas G Purvis, bottom left.
Impressive size with the frame being 108.75 cm wide and 78 cm high.
Thomas G Purvis (12 April 1861 – 17 January 1933) was a British marine artist. A sea captain who turned to painting, he was a prolific painter of ship portraits and marine scenes from the early 1890s to the late 1920s. His paintings can be found in a number of public collections, notably the National Maritime Museum and the National Museum of Wales. Thomas George Purvis (professionally known as T G Purvis) was born in Chirton, Northumberland, on 12 April 1861. He was the only child of the then 46-year-old Jane Scott, daughter of a master mariner, and her husband, Thomas Joseph Purvis (1821–86), a block maker born in Alnwick.
Purvis went to sea as an apprentice in December 1878, working his way up to obtain his Master's certificate in August 1887. He sailed on a variety of steam and sailing vessels; the latter including two and a half years on the bark Arabella and a voyage to Australia in the Dundee-built clipper, La Sarcoceles. In 1886, he married Grace Elizabeth Dodgin (1861-1948), the eldest daughter of shipbuilder and marine engineer Charles William Dodgin (1839-1917). As a ship's captain, T G could only find employment delivering new small steamships to South America, and he gave this up in July 1891 to become a full-time painter; he had already described himself as a "marine artist" in the census earlier that year. From this time until the beginning of the First World War, he was a prolific painter, mainly of ship portraits, though probably his best paintings are those where he was not constrained by the conventions of ship portraiture.
By 1888, when his oldest son, Tom Purvis, was born, he was living in Bristol. He moved in early 1894 to Cardiff, [9]where he for a time also ran a photographic studio, and was still there in 1902. Soon after, he moved to Blackheath, London. He was in Black heath when his son Tom started at Camberwell School of Art in ca. 1904. By the outbreak of the First World War, the great sailing ships Purvis loved to paint were in decline. In 1915, he moved to the Far East, leaving his family behind, and took employment as mate or master of various steamships, at least until 1925. Meanwhile, he continued to paint. Purvis died in Hong Kong on 17 January 1933, after an accident.
His five children all showed artistic talent in varying degrees, especially his oldest son, Tom Purvis (1888-1959), who became one of the most distinguished and distinctive of 20th century poster artists.
The Colony ship was a four-masted iron ship built in 1886 by W. Doxford & Sons, Sunderland, as new building 167. Dimensions: 78,63×12,00×7.03 meters [258'40×39'5"×23'1"] and tonnage 1750 GET and 1694 NET. Rigged with double top- and top gallant sails. 1886 March
Launched at the shipyard of W. Oxford & Sons, Sunderland, for William Thomas & Co., Liverpool. 1899 Re-rigged as a four-masted baroque. 1915 July
Sold to Squibs A/S Kringles (Kr. Knudsen), Kristian sand, Norway, for £7500 and was renamed Kringles. Assigned the Norwegian signal WKJL. 1918 June 14
Sunk by the German submarine U 151 at 38°2' N, 71°40' W on voyage from Buenos Aires to New York with linseed. The master of the Kringles was Captain G. Magnus dal.
Reference sources British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections, HTTP://books.google.com/books/?Id=9XNe0mLSJQAC, BBC "Your Paintings", HTTP://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/your paintings/artists/Thoma-Zeiss-2360/paintings/slideshow#/8 National Maritime Museum records "Ancestry® | Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History Records". Mariners List ship index, HTTP://www.mariners-l.co.uk/IBON-INDEX.html The Fine Art Emporium, HTTP://www.fineartemporium.com/se-Purvis-TG.htm "FreeBMD Home Page". Glamorgan's photographers, HTTP://www.genuki.org.uk/big/walk/GLA/Photographers.html
Four- and five masted ships, general references. Tandberg, Arne: (Personal communication).
Bergen, 1997.
An exceptionally sought after nautical collectible artwork.
Provenance label verso.
Such a delightful scene to the eye, a great conversation piece.
Highly sought after due to the collectible nature of the subject marine matter such elaborate detail.
With hanging thread on the back ready for immediate home wall display.
Incredible conversation piece for your guests.
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Condition report.
Offered in fine used condition.
Front painting surface in good order. Having some foxing staining in places. With a large stain shown on the back of the canvas. The frame, which has general wear, scuffs, scratches, stains, cracking, some minor chip losses commensurate with usage & old age.
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Dimensions in centimetres of the frame

High (78 cm)
Wide (108.75 cm)
Depth total thickness of frame at deepest point (5 cm)