Ship Alfred of Salem Cap’ Joseph Felt

Dimensions : 375 x 550 mm.
Frame dimensions : 530 x 695 mm.

Watercolor and gouache on laid paper.
Signed and dated lower right.
Excellent overall condition, one or two light stains, ligltly faded.
Nineteenth-century frame with some modern damage and restoration.

A magnificent, large watercolor depicting the three-masted Alfred of Salem sailing out of the Old Port of Marseille.
She was built by David Magoun in 1805 in Salem, Massachusetts, for Joseph White and Joseph White Jr.
Her first captain was Joseph Felt. After numerous voyages to Europe and the East Indies, during the War of 1812, she was commissioned as a privateer by her owners at the time—Joseph White Jr., Nathaniel Silsbee, George Crowninshield, James Devereux, and others—armed with 16 cannons and a crew of 130 men.
She captured the British brig Diamond and the brig George, valued at $120,000, as well as the brigs Tercilla and Curfew. On February 23, 1814, the Alfred was in turn captured by H.M. Sloop Epervier and H.M. Frigate Junon.

In this watercolor, we can see that some of the crew members depicted are Black people dressed in red.

Nicolas Cammillieri (c. 1773–1860) was a Maltese marine painter active from the late 18th century through the 1850s. He produced several versions of this watercolor. One of them was painted for the second captain of the Alfred, Jacob Agge, whose descendants donated it to the Peabody Museum in 1956. A facsimile reproduction of this watercolor exists.
Another, nearly identical version of this watercolor was sold at Bonhams Skinner in Boston in 2009 (American Furniture & Decorative Arts—2444, February 15, 2009, lot no. 130, sold for $22,000).
The work we are presenting is a third version.

Dorothy E.R. Brewington. Dictionary of Marine Artists (1982, p.73). - E.H.H. Archibald. Dictionnaire des peintres de la mer. (1989, p.90). - Antonio Espinosa Rodrigues, Nicola Camilleri - Maltese Ship-Painter Melita Historica Vol. XI No.2 (Malte 1993).

14 000€

In stock