Eustis Estate
Off Nix’s Mate, Boston Harbor
George Curtis
Paintings from the Eustis Estate
ComparisonsIt cannot be overstated how popular marine paintings were in nineteenth-century New England. On display in the dining room on the ground floor of Eustis Estate is another example of this phenomenon, Wesley Webber’s Along the Maine Coast. It was made approximately one decade later than George Curtis’s scene and therefore is considerably more Impressionistic in handling, coloring, and mood.
Right: Elbridge Wesley Webber, (1839–1914), Along the Maine Coast, 1860-1890, oil on canvas, 24 3/4 x 30 ¾ in., Museum Purchase, 2016.55.1.
Learn more about the Webber painting in the section below.
Along the Maine Coast
Born in Gardiner, Maine, in 1839, Wesley Webber served in the Civil War and was present at General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. His sketches of that event and others which were done during the war were shown at the Boston Art Club and launched his career as an artist. Although self-taught, Webber established a successful career painting New England landscapes and maritime scenes. The soft light and tonalist quality of this Maine coastal scene represents his skill when he was doing his best work.
U.S. Brig Niagara Under Full Sail
Because sailing ship technology did not change dramatically through the nineteenth century, the commercial vessel depicted by George Curtis in the 1870s was not dissimilar to the one shown under sail in this film clip—a 1988 replica of the U.S. Brig Niagara, in which Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry fought during the War of 1812.
Video courtesy of Flagship Niagara League.
