Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
Charles Brooking, 1723–1759, British
Title:
Shipping in the English Channel
Date:
ca. 1755
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
35 1/2 x 46 3/8 inches (90.2 x 117.8 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Signed in black paint, lower left: "C. Brooking".
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.65
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
cliffs | boats | ships | frigates | flags | sea | seascape | sloop (sailing vessel) | cutter (sailing vessel) | marine art | clouds | shipping
Associated Places:
England | United Kingdom | Europe | English Channel
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Spreading Canvas - Eighteenth - Century British Marine Painting (Yale Center for British Art, 2016-09-09 - 2016-12-04)

Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20)
Publications:
Anecdotes of painters..., Leigh and Sotheby, London, p. 5, ND496 E3 1808+ (YCBA)

E. H. H. Archibald, Dictionary of sea painters, Antique Collector's Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K., p. 73, ND1370 A72+ (YCBA)

Laura Beach, Spreading Canvas : Eighteenth-Centry British Marine Painting, Antiques and the Arts Weekly, vol. 48, Bee Publishing Company, Newtown, November 4, 2016, p. 30, V 2718 (YCBA)

British Art at Yale, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 288, 291, fig. 6, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, A Selective Promenade, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 288, 291, fig. 10, N1 A54 + (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 42-43, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Seascapes : Yale Center for British Art., , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. [ 5 ], no. 15, V 1909 (YCBA) Vertical File

Martina Droth, Britain in the world : Highlights from the Yale Center for British Art in honor of Amy Meyers, Yale University Press, New Haven, London, 2019, pp. 44, 46 (detail), N6761 .Y33 2019 (LC) (YCBA)

John Ellis, An essay towards a natural history of the corallines, and other maringe productions of the like kind, commonly found on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland ..., London, p. vii., QL379 E55 (BEIN)

Joseph Farington, The Diary of Joseph Farington, , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1978, vol. 3, p. 766, NJ18 F2164 A3 1978 (YCBA)

Ferens Art Gallery, Marine paintings : A Festival of Britain Exhibition, , Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1951, p. 37, no. 27, ND1373 G7 M275 1951 (YCBA)

Luke Herrmann, The Paul Mellon Collection at Burlington House, Connoisseur, vol. 157, December 1964, p. 219, fig. 12, N1 C75 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Eleanor Hughes, Spreading Canvas : Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2016, Jacket Illustration, p. 154, 180-181, cat. 47, fig. 47, ND 1373.G74 S67 2016 (YCBA)

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 50 (v.1), no. 25, pl. 23, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA)

Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, p. 45 (v.1), No. 166, pl. 6, N5220.M45 R69 1964 (YCBA)

Martin Postle, Johan Zoffany, RA : Society Observed, , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011, pp. 227-228, NJ18 Z68 + A12 2011 Oversize (YCBA)

Basil Taylor, Charles Brooking, 1723-1759, paintings, drawings and engravings : an exhibition arranged by the Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art in association with the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, 9-21 June 1966, and the Bristol City Art Gallery, 1-30 July 1966., Westerham Press, London, p. 6, NJ18 B824 P38+ (YCBA)

Yale Center for British Art, Selected paintings, drawings & books, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. 20, N590.2 A82 (YCBA)

Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 4 (v.1), no. 18, pl. 6, ND466 Y35 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
The setting of this exuberant work can be identified as the area known as the Downs, off the southeast coast of England in the county of Kent. The Downs had long been used as a safe anchorage for shipping, sheltered to the north and west by the coast, and to the east by the ten-mile-long sandbanks known as the Goodwin Sands. These and other constantly shifting shoals in the area posed a hazard to vessels and necessitated the guidance of knowledgeable pilots to navigate the passage between safe anchorage and open water. The ship at right plunging toward the viewer has just dropped off a pilot and is headed out to sea, the fresh breeze filling the sails that are still being adjusted. To the left, a naval two-decker is possibly coming into the anchorage and about to take on its own pilot; other ships can be seen moored in the anchorage beyond it. Gallery label for Spreading Canvas - Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting (Yale Center for British Art, 2016-09-09 - 2016-12-04)
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:575