#000072
British 19th Century Marine Painting
Denys Brook-Hart
British 19th Century Marine Painting (1974) is Denys Brook-Hart's standard reference on a whole genre—the sea paintings that flowed from Britain's century as the world's great maritime power. More survey and dictionary than argument, it gathers concise details on well over five hundred artists who painted ships and the sea, from famous names like Turner and Constable down to the many gifted but obscure hands the author set out to rescue from oblivion. Some 240 illustrations, thirty in full color, give it real visual range. Published by the Antique Collectors' Club, it was frankly aimed at collectors and dealers as much as scholars, and it remains prized as a practical guide to attributions, careers, and the shape of the field. For anyone interested in marine art, nineteenth-century British painting, or the history of ships under sail and steam, it's a genuinely useful and handsome reference.
more…less ▴
The author
Denys Brook-Hart was a British writer on marine art whose books for the Antique Collectors' Club became standard references for the field. He wrote for the growing postwar market of collectors seeking reliable information on painters and their work.
The book
Published in 1974 by the Antique Collectors' Club of Woodbridge, Suffolk, British 19th Century Marine Painting combines a general history with detailed notes on over five hundred artists, illustrated by some 240 plates, thirty of them in color. Its stated aim was to give practical, concise information—especially on lesser-known but talented painters previously unrecorded.
How it has aged
As a reference it has worn well: the biographical detail and attributions remain useful to collectors and scholars, even as tastes and prices shift. It is more catalog than critical study, which is exactly its strength.
For more context
Read alongside Brook-Hart's companion volume on British twentieth-century marine painting and general histories of the genre.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Denys Brook-Hart
- Publisher
- Antique Collectors' Club
- Place of publication
- Woodbridge, Suffolk
- Year
- 1974
- Edition
- Second edition (1979)
- ISBN
- 902028324
- Format
- Hardcover
- Shelf
- Art
- Location
- Maine