Clarkson Stanfield - The Maritime Art Explorer of the 19th Century

As someone who has always been interested in Geography and travelling I would say I have been to, and have seen various different countries and cultures. There is something unique about to going to a country which isn't the one in which you have grown up in. The world has become considerably smaller and travel is now cheaper and cheaper. Yet, if I was to say that many of the artists of the early 19th Century travelled more than any of us combined, most would probably not believe this but it is certainly true in many cases.

The Georgians and early Victorian's were fascinated in countries and far off lands that they had never been to, and it was the authors and artists of the day who brought these exotic places to life. David Roberts' (1796-1864) study and tour of the Holy Land is one of the most celebrated works of the 19th Century as it brought the Middle East to life for many people who would never have the chance to go there. Yet, it wasn't just landscape artists who flourished, maritime artists such as JMW Turner (1775-1851) and Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867) spent many months abroad to help cater for the demand back in Britain. Turner's tours have been well documented but is Stanfield's that I will briefly cover.

The Heath's Picturesque Annual was one of the most popular Victorian travel books and it combined the use of artists' depictions along with a travel account of the journey undertaken by the author and the artist. Stanfield did the 1832-1834 editions with Leitch Ritchie and these brought him to France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and Italy to name just a few countries. Figure 1 shows an image from the 1834 edition of Dieppe in France. Although many of the illustrations for the annuals are of landscapes, Stanfield's mastery of the sea comes across in examples like this. A contrasting example is figure 2 of a still and calm Rotterdam from the 1833 edition.

Figure 1. Clarkson Stanfield 'Dippe' 1834 Heath's Picturesque Annual edition

Figure 2. Clarkson Stanfield 'Rotterdam' 1833 Heath's Picturesque Annual edition

What makes this era so interesting is that due to photographs not being in use yet and the high costs of travelling these sketches are what people would imagine the countries and locations to be like. Stanfield regularly went abroad for months at a time and in 1839 he was even caught up in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (see figure 3). This is an interesting example as people back in Britain just wouldn't have known how a volcano would look like when it was exploding. Many of his most famous paintings are Italian or French scenes which for a British artist in the 19th Century is not a coincidence as this was what patrons and the public were particularly interested in.

Figure 3. Clarkson Stanfield (1839) 'Vesuvius in Eruption', watercolour, Tate Collection

Clarkson Stanfield did sketches for his own book 'Stanfield's Coast Scenery' (1836) which is probably what people would immediately think of when speaking of his sketches for books. Even here his examples of the British coastline is remarkably impressive, for example, his sketches of St Michael's Mount in Cornwall (see figure 4) which would have been a very remote place to have visited for someone from London in the early 19th Century.

Figure 4. Clarkson Stanfield 'St Michael's Mount, Cornwall', from Stansfield's Coast Scenery (1836)

There are many more examples that I could give here and that I could get excited about. However, there is another blog or possibly more that could be given to this area. It wasn't just Stanfield who sketched for books and famous engravers in the Victorian age and maybe there are others that you might want me to look at? I know Copley Fielding and Edward Duncan are two maritime artists who did a lot of commissions for books. Lastly, the sketches that Stanfield produced for the engravings were often made into larger paintings and sometimes oils that were equally stunning. It is amazing how much depth a grey toned engraving can give to a location but to see the colours that Stanfield would then use in an oil of somewhere like Naples or Vietri gives today's public an even greater appreciation of the travelling and exploration that Clarkson Stanfield did in the 19th Century. Finally, look at figure 5 and imagine viewing this as a Victorian who had never left Britain and who hadn't yet seen photographs of Vietri, Italy. It really does bring the warm colours of Italy to life.

Figure 5. Clarkson Stanfield 'Calm at Vietri', Oil on canvas, 1857