Summer Americana Auction
Lot 296:
John E. C. Petersen (Danish-American, 1839-1874). The Bark Verena under Siamese Colors, 1873. Watercolor on paper, heightened with white gouache, 15 ½ x 23 ½ inches; signed and dated on lower left; conservation framed. Works by noted marine painter John Erik Christian Petersen are rare, as he died in 1874 at the age of thirty-five. Academically trained at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, Petersen was working in Boston by the Civil War. In his brief career, Petersen had works accepted at the annual exhibitions of the Boston Athenaeum, the National Academy of Design, and the Brooklyn Art Association. The artist’s canvases are distinguished by an inner glow seen in his skies and seas. The bark Verena was launched in Sunderland, England, in January 1865. With a tonnage of 426 and a riffed length of 130 feet, she was owned and operated by Hopper & Company of that port. Although listed as under the command of Captain J. Simpson and registered as a British vessel in the Lloyds List of 1874-75, she curiously flies the flag of the Siam in this fine 1873 view depicting the ship veering away from a rocky shoal in stormy weather and rough seas, probably somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
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