Captain picture
The captain's picture is a genre of representational painting that can be assigned to the genre of marine painting. The subject of such a picture is the documentary representation of a ship, which was usually made as a souvenir on behalf of the captain. Pictures of captains were particularly common from the 18th to the early 20th century. After that, photography replaced the craft portrait of a ship. The paintings , drawings and watercolors were made in ports all over the world by specialized painters. Today, these often folksy, naive ship portraits are once again enjoying great popularity among collectors.
history
The genre of the captain's image probably emerged in Italy around the middle of the 18th century when some talented craftsmen were looking for a new source of income. In the ports, these artists approached the officers and captains of the merchant and warships and offered to produce lifelike images of these ships.
The pictures were particularly popular in the 19th century. Most of the specimens in maritime collections and museums have survived from this period. After the First World War, the last sailing ships disappeared from the ports. Ship portraits also went out of fashion at this time and were replaced by photography . Many former painters became ship photographers as a result. However, this development took place over several decades. Since the middle of the 19th century, many ship portraits were both painters and photographers, so they orientated themselves to the wishes of the customer. After the Second World War, the often very decorative representations were rediscovered by those interested in the maritime sector. Some companies now offer reproductions or replicas again , and occasionally a modern captain even orders a captain's picture from a marine painter.
The pictures
Most of the captain's pictures show the ship in side view under full sail. Sometimes the same ship appears several times in the picture from different angles. In addition to the traditional side view, a rear view is shown. The sea is sometimes calm, sometimes moving. Dramatic scenes such as accidents or sea storms are rare. Often other ships can be seen in the background, harbors or stretches of coast were also often depicted. The names of the ship and the captain are often found at the bottom. All common types of ships were shown except for small and fishing vessels, which were only very rarely shown as the main motif. The painters usually remain anonymous. Occasionally, signatures or initials can be found on the pictures, but these can only rarely be assigned to specific artists. The creators of these ship portraits, so far neglected by academic art history, saw themselves predominantly as craftsmen, the genre only rarely claimed to be "art". However, there are also quite high-ranking artists among the ship painters. For example, the Englishman John Huggins (1781–1845) worked his way up to become a court painter .
Since the illustrations were made “by experts for experts”, the technical details are usually reproduced extremely correctly. The artists often made use of the models' sail plans or rigging plans. For this reason, the images are also considered to be valuable cultural-historical sources on the history of seafaring, on which ship types that have long since disappeared were accurately documented. Even the teams that are sometimes shown are not mere accessories, the activities shown are always clearly identifiable.
Occasionally the ship portraits were also executed in other artistic techniques. Embroidery or half-models made of different materials should be mentioned here. The Flemish reverse glass paintings, which were mainly created in Ostend and Antwerp, are also a special feature. Pictures of captains also appear on the portraits of captains and shipowners in the offices and living rooms of trading cities. Often real portraits of ships - now lost - were documented here.
The Maritime Museum in Rostock , the Kulturhistorisches Museum in Stralsund , the Altona Museum in Hamburg , the Maritime Museum of the Oldenburg Lower Weser in Brake, the Folklore Museum in Schwerin and the Windjammer Museum in Barth with the Reeckmann private collection have larger collections of captains' pictures.
literature
- Naive art of seafarers: pictures of captains and figureheads . Recklinghausen 1971 (exhibition catalog 25th Ruhr Festival).
- Werner Timm: Captain pictures . Bielefeld 1971.
- Adrian Bueckling: Captain pictures in the 19th century. In: Usedom exclusively. 15th year, edition Winter 2014, p. 18.
- Werner Timm : Captain pictures. Ship portraits since 1782. 2nd edition. VEB Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 1978.
- Boye Meyer-Friese: The ship portrait. Inventory catalog of the collection of the Altona Museum in Hamburg - North German State Museum . 3 volumes, 2007–2009. Bremen (with 344 captain pictures with all the data and facts about the ships and the marine painters).
- Lutz Mohr : A tradition is being revived. In Greifswald, the so-called captain pictures are again being made . In: North German lighthouse Schwerin . No. 1502 , February 26, 1982.
- Lutz Mohr: Ships in Oil . In: Urania Universe . tape 29 . Urania Verlag, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1983, p. 117-121 .
- Lutz Mohr: Greifswald ships as "captain pictures". A special maritime art genre has almost disappeared today. In: The Pommersche Zeitung . Volume 64, Volume 9 of March 1, 2014, p. 2.