Posted 6 years ago
kwqd
(1178 items)
This accomplished UK marine artist was active in the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries and painted under the pseudonyms W. Stewart, J. Hill and F. Grayson and perhaps others. Works are sometimes signed with a monogram, "WS", "JH", etc. It is fairly certain that he/she was situated in southeast England as many works by this artist feature "SM" on the sails of the ships in their paintings, a designation for Shoreham. This artist also painted Venice harbor scenes and very rarely a coastal scene. Several researchers have concluded that this artist was actually Frederick James Aldridge 1850-1933, well known British watercolorist, because their works are so similar. It may be that Aldridge painted under these pseudonyms to protect the sale value of works that he painted under his real name. Others have speculated this artist was a student of Aldridge, though that is less likely as both artists were active at roughly the same time. This artist was so prolific that their works are still commonly found for reasonable prices at auction on sites like ebay, Etsy or other online and brick and mortar auction houses. Work by this artist is sometimes misrepresented as that of Scottish artist William Stewart 1823-1906, but that is most definitely not correct. I have spent several years in researching this artist in an attempt to prove their identity but with little success. I tend to agree that this is the work of FJA. All of the works shown are from my personal collection.
http://kevindaniel.x10.mx/wstewart.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_James_Aldridge
Beautiful paintings of awesome ships, very interesting history
I think the scenes are more Dutch or Flemish.
The first two are probably Brittany or Holland. The last two are southern England. The sail on the fourth image has the SM mark for Shoreham. He also did some southwest British coastal scenes. Aldridge painted scenes in the same locales.
Thanks for your comments Jenni and blunderbuss2! I am trying to limit my artist of the month posts to works by artists that folks can still find for a reasonable price if they like their work. Works by this artist still regularly pop up on ebay for reasonable prices. I hear from folks about once a month who have his works.
Thanks for loving my artist of the month!
fortapache
Collectables59
blunderbuss2
Manikin
aura
Newfld
Anik
Thanks, Caperkid!