On board the yacht “Namouna”, Venice

On board the yacht “Namouna”, Venice
	Julius LeBlanc Stewart , 1890
	Oil on canvas
	142.2 × 195.6 cm
	Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut

On board the yacht “Namouna”, Venice is a painting by Julius LeBlanc Stewart from the late 19th century. It belongs to the holdings of the Wadsworth Atheneum , Hartford (Connecticut) , The Ella Gallup Summer and Mary Catlin Summer Collection Fund , and bears the inventory number 1965.32. In 2008 it was part of the High Society exhibition . American portrait of the Gilded Age seen by the Bucerius Kunst Forum .

history

The three-masted, ocean-going steam yacht Namouna was the largest private yacht of its time. It belonged to James Gordon Bennett, Jr. , editor of the New York Herald . Bennett took over this newspaper from his father in 1867. In addition to his work in the newspaper business - in 1887 he founded the Paris Herald - he was also active in other areas as an entrepreneur. In 1883, for example, he founded the Commercial Cable Company . The fact that he moved to Europe, where Stewart probably got to know his yacht, had to do with a scandal that had occurred in 1877: Frederick May, his fiancée's brother, had him publicly exposed as a punishment for a violation of morality the Fifth Avenue whipped. A duel ensued , the engagement was broken and Bennett moved to Paris .

The Namouna had interiors from McKim, Mead, and White , décor from Louis Comfort Tiffany, and features such as accommodation for a cow whose milk was served on board. The - according to contradicting sources - 227 or 234 feet long yacht, built in 1882 for Bennett according to a design by St. Clair Byrne at the shipyard of Ward, Stanton & Co. in Newburgh , was designed for a crew of 50 men. They ran for about $ 150,000 annually. She was sold in 1900 and replaced by a larger ship called the Lysistrata . It was given the name General Pinzon by its new owner, the Colombian Navy . A newspaper note from 1890, in which Stewart's picture was taken, reports of a Namouna accident in the China Sea, in which three crew members were washed overboard and the ship suffered severe damage.

Stewart probably got to know the ship when he and the art critic John C. Van Dyke were invited to a party on board in 1890 . The Namouna time was near San Marco in Venice at anchor and Stewart received permission during his work on the screen as often look to it.

This drawing, published in 1887, shows the view of the deck from the reverse perspective of Stewart's painting.
General view of the yacht built in 1882
Apparently the Namouna also served as the archetype of the ship in Stewart's painting Yachting the Mediterranean from 1896.

description

Stewart's landscape format painting is predominantly in light beige and brown tones, the main line rising slightly from left to right. Two groups of people are compositionally linked. The picture shows a view of the deck of the ship, which is shaded by sun sails. In the background you can see a strip of sea and a bright blue sky; It is not possible to say with certainty whether there are pale gray architectural elements indicated above the horizon line or rather a slight haze over the water. On the left edge of the picture a wooden deck structure with retractable windows and a metal handrail can be seen, to which a young woman is holding on, with her torso slightly bent, looking away from the viewer of the picture to a young man in light summer clothes on a bench sits. This stands in the longitudinal direction of the ship. The young woman, with a few pieces of luggage piled up at her feet, wears a light, floor-length skirt with three braids above the hem, a pink and white striped blouse with ruffles, the sleeves of which are rolled up, and no headgear on her brown hair. The moustached young man, on the other hand, who turns to her and seems to be in dialogue with her, wears a hat. He supports himself with his left arm as if he were about to get up from his seat. In the same line with his bench, which is apparently hinged and firmly installed on the ship, other such benches can be seen, as well as a mast base . At a considerable distance, in the bow of the ship and turned away from the company assembled on board, stands a man in sailor clothing. On the right-hand side of the picture, i.e. on the starboard side of the Namouna , three other people have sat down on improvised seating. A second woman sits leaning back and lolling in a high-backed chair with side rests. She wears a red blouse and a light-colored skirt, her face under her blonde hair is smilingly turned towards a couple who can be seen in the foreground on the right of the picture, but her gaze seems to be more focused on the young woman in the foreground on the left. She thus forms the connecting element to the second group of people: In a wicker armchair, half lying and leaning on a large turquoise-colored cushion, another dark-blonde woman turns to a man who is apparently reading something to her. A large, brown and white spotted dog has its snout in her lap. She is dressed in a dark maritime costume and a striped blouse. For his part, the reader sits upright on a wicker stool or chair with his back to the viewer. He holds the book he is reading from with both hands. Only about a quarter profile can be seen of his face. He wears a mustache and gray hair cut short under his straw hat, a dark jacket and light-colored trousers.

There was much debate about the identity of the people depicted. The couple on the right has long been interpreted as portraying the actress Lillie Langtry and the industrialist Freddie Gebhard with whom she was dating, but Van Dyke claimed the figure of the seated reader to represent himself. Van Dyke said the women were painted according to Venetian models. The young man on the left could be the owner of the yacht himself, which is not only obvious in view of the personal relationship with the painter, but is also supported by a comparison with Bennett's photographs from around 1890.

Lillie Langtry with her dog in a painting by Millais from 1877
James Gordon Bennett around 1910/1915

Stewart's picture is in the tradition of French impressionism . Helene Barbara Weinberg and Carrie Rebora Barratt relate it to images such as On the Open Sea and The Transatlantic Steamship “Péreie” and state that such compositions “exploit oblique views and dispersed narrative focus”.

Position in the complete works

Stewart first exhibited the picture at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago . It caused a sensation there. Thematically, it belongs to a complex of depictions of the pleasant life of the rich upper class, which Stewart had conceived in the form of large-format conversation pieces . He had already shown such pictures at the Paris World Exhibition in 1889, including The Seine at Bougival from 1885. Stewart's friend Bennett can also be seen in this picture. Stewart reportedly planned a series of four such works to symbolize the four seasons. On board the yacht "Namouna", Venice , according to Ulrich Hiesinger, one of these pictures should be and represent the summer .

literature

Barbara Dayer Gallati: High Society. American portraits of the Gilded Age. Munich: Hirmer 2008. p. 164 f. ISBN 978-3-7774-4185-6

Single receipts

↑ At least that is what Dayer Gallati writes, while Knecht explains that the cow or two cows were only carried on the successor ship. See G. Bruce Knecht: Grand Ambition: An Extraordinary Yacht, the People Who Built It, and the Millionaire Who Can't Really Afford It . Simon and Schuster, June 30, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4165-7601-3 , p. 241.
^ ^A ^b Robert Dick: Auto Racing Comes of Age: A Transatlantic View of the Cars, Drivers and Speedways, 1900-1925 . McFarland, 8 May 2013, ISBN 978-0-7864-6670-2 , p. 6.
^ G. Bruce Knecht: Grand Ambition: An Extraordinary Yacht, the People Who Built It, and the Millionaire Who Can't Really Afford It . Simon and Schuster, 30 June 2015, ISBN 978-1-4165-7601-3 , p. 241–.
^ Accident to the Namouna , in: The New York Times , April 23, 1890 ( digitized version )
↑ This theory was still held in the 21st century, cf. such as Joseph M. Di Cola, David Stone: Chicago's 1893 World's Fair . Arcadia Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7385-9441-5 , page 104. .
↑ See the footnote in: John C. Van Dyke: The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances . JHU Press, August 12, 1999, ISBN 978-0-8018-6224-3 , p. 34.
^ Helene Barbara Weinberg, Carrie Rebora Barratt: American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 . Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, ISBN 978-1-58839-336-4 , pp. 118–.
^ Ulrich Hiesinger: Julius LeBlanc Stewart. American Painter of the Belle Époque. New York 1998, p. 48, quoted in: Barbara Dayer Gallati: High Society. American portraits of the Gilded Age. Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7774-4185-6 , p. 164.

[1] At least that is what Dayer Gallati writes, while Knecht explains that the cow or two cows were only carried on the successor ship. See G. Bruce Knecht: Grand Ambition: An Extraordinary Yacht, the People Who Built It, and the Millionaire Who Can't Really Afford It . Simon and Schuster, June 30, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4165-7601-3 , p. 241.

[Dick2013-2] A ^b Robert Dick: Auto Racing Comes of Age: A Transatlantic View of the Cars, Drivers and Speedways, 1900-1925 . McFarland, 8 May 2013, ISBN 978-0-7864-6670-2 , p. 6.

[Knecht2015-3] G. Bruce Knecht: Grand Ambition: An Extraordinary Yacht, the People Who Built It, and the Millionaire Who Can't Really Afford It . Simon and Schuster, 30 June 2015, ISBN 978-1-4165-7601-3 , p. 241–.

[4] Accident to the Namouna , in: The New York Times , April 23, 1890 ( digitized version )

[5] This theory was still held in the 21st century, cf. such as Joseph M. Di Cola, David Stone: Chicago's 1893 World's Fair . Arcadia Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7385-9441-5 , page 104. .

[6] See the footnote in: John C. Van Dyke: The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances . JHU Press, August 12, 1999, ISBN 978-0-8018-6224-3 , p. 34.

[WeinbergBarratt2009-7] Helene Barbara Weinberg, Carrie Rebora Barratt: American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 . Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, ISBN 978-1-58839-336-4 , pp. 118–.

[8] Ulrich Hiesinger: Julius LeBlanc Stewart. American Painter of the Belle Époque. New York 1998, p. 48, quoted in: Barbara Dayer Gallati: High Society. American portraits of the Gilded Age. Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7774-4185-6 , p. 164.