Chinese Export School, Mid-19th Century Portrait of the Clipper Ship The J. Peabody

Description:

Chinese Export School, Mid-19th Century

Portrait of the Clipper Ship The J. Peabody, c. 1855. Unsigned. Oil on canvas, 12 3/4 x 15 1/2 in. (sight),framed. Condition: Unrestored, some craquelure.

Provenance: Descended in the family from Capt. John Bradshaw, Beverly, Massachusetts, who was captain of the ship The J. Peabody. Joseph Peabody was among the wealthiest ship owners in Salem, Massachusetts from 1811 to 1845.

Literature: The Decorative Arts of the China Trade by Carl Crossman, Antique Collector's Club, 1991, pl. 60, p. 145, depicts a similar ship with the same painting characteristics which are attributed to the "Typhoon Painter." This Chinese School artist is recognizable by his style, as he used a distinctive blue-gray palette with delicate handling of the ship and its rigging. He also painted the ship's name on the pennant in reverse.

Note: The medium clipper The J. Peabody was built by E.H.O. Briggs & Co. of South Boston, Massachusetts in 1856.
Estimate $3,000-4,000

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