William Wyllie The Sloping Deck 1871. Oil on card. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented by the family of James Jamieson 1932
Petrus van der Velden The Leuvehaven, Rotterdam 1867. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased with assistance from Gabrielle Tasman in memory of Adriaan, and the Olive Stirrat bequest. Purchase supported by Christchurch City Council’s Challenge Grant to Christchurch Art Gallery Trust, 2010
This exhibition is now closed
Drawing its inspiration from the sea, this exhibition highlights the Gallery's collection of maritime paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and ceramics, alongside scrimshaw from Canterbury Museum's collection.
Views from the safe confines of the harbour are displayed alongside vivid images of ships braving wild storms and disasters on the high seas. Several artists explore the idea of being lost at sea, through literary classics Moby Dick and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Historical favourites by the likes of John Gibb and Petrus van der Velden hang alongside more modern artists such as Tony Fomison, Olivia Spencer Bower and Max Gimblett but all draw their inspiration from the sea.
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Date:
3 September 2016 – 6 February 2017 -
Curator:
Peter Vangioni -
Exhibition number:
1015
Collection works in this exhibition
Related
Exhibition
Ship Songs
6 February 2017
A small but poetic exhibition looking at early European and Māori representations of seafaring vessels, with the Charlotte Jane as a focal point.
Commentary
Reading the Swell
The art of the sea has always been the art of vastness—without edges and with potential for infinite extension. It is this immensity that has invaded the Reading the Swell exhibition; finding its way through the automatic doors when no one is looking and quietly expanding the walls. Like sailors, artists have laid soundings in this uncharted vastness. Reading the Swell is a small and pointed selection of those soundings that see fit to make sense of the sea.
Notes
Moonlight by Julius Olsson
This article first appeared as 'Artist left all at sea by changing tides' in The Press on 6 December 2016
Notes
The Sloping Deck
Although one of the smallest oil paintings in the permanent collection William Wyllie's The Sloping Deck is a powerful and terrifying image of a ship being wrecked on rocks.
Notes
The Leuvehaven, Rotterdam by Petrus van der Velden
This article first appeared as 'Lost painting found' in The Press on 2 November 2012.
Notes
Then and now
Last year the Gallery acquired this magnificent early work by Petrus van der Velden:
Notes
New van der Velden painting on display
Visitors to the Gallery will soon have the chance to see one of Petrus van der Velden's earliest works.