Representations of ships

The oldest image in the gallery, (from 1533 Germany) Hans Holbein draws this cartoon-like depiction of a ship. It features an overcrowded number of sailors sprawled all over the ship, all with different actions and tasks. This drawing has quite a modern style to it, despite it being so old. It takes a very alternative view from the other images in this gallery which are primarily paintings.

Almost 500 years ago, French artist Jacques Callot created this piece with an etching technique. This style is unlike many of the other artworks in this gallery, and the sketched/lined shading technique is a very different way of showing a battle ship.

Jan Porcellis in 1618, with oil on panel, painted this enormous feeling artwork. Ships are shown helpless against the force of the waves, which seems to be a common trend amongst painters in these eras. The golden ship is contrasted against the dark waves and cloudy skies.

This is the most dark and terrifying painting in my gallery. With the great contrast from the golden sky, against rich blacks of the ocean, Rudolf Backhuysen paints this stormy image during the 1700s. Featuring 6 ships almost tipping over, Ludolf displays how helpless boats can be in such conditions, and brings a unique insight to the reality of sailing 300 years ago.

This painting by Edouard Manet in 1860, represents the dull, dreary and often gloomy side of traveling on ships. With the dark foreboding sky, the empty deck and long shadows, I feel it shows how boring yet peaceful sailing can be. This perspective hasn't been shown in any other of the works.

My favorite of the gallery, this is an image from the late 1800s by Carl Rasmussen. The detail and accuracy he translated into his work is extremely realistic and natural. This artwork demonstrates the beauty of ships and sailing, as well as the dangers from the treacherous seas and rocky coastline.

Here is a ship captured in a very different culture, Japan. By Artist Kuniteru II in 1895, here is his impression of a foreign ship arriving at a Japanese Port. It looks as though the positive affects of foreign trade is being shown. Ink and color on paper is fairly different from the other paintings, and this one has a very distinct oriental style.

The painting is a very dark and mysterious look of ships, painted in the early 1900s by Eugen in Stockholm, Sweden. Aside from the gorgeous winter sunrise, the ships have been illustrated in a relaxed yet foreboding manner. This painting is quite different from the others.

"Ships on the East River" from 1944 has an old fashioned look to it and shows a dock harboring some large ships. I feel it is very representative of ships from that era, and the artist has done a great job of capturing the shear scale of these colossal cargo ships.

Here is a modern painting from Korea of an aircraft carrier. It illustrates what ships have become in recent times - highly optimized war vessels. The lone figure on the ship creates a sense of unease. It is a very different painting to the previous works.