Marine paintings at the New York Yacht Club - Cover Story

Magazine Antiques, July, 1999 by Robert B. Mackay

The tragedy cast a pall over yachting activity for the remainder of the season, but it was probably an even greater tragedy for Freitag, who lost a well-heeled patron. Indeed, the lot of marine painters in nineteenth-century New York must have been a sorry one as they eked out a meager living. Ship portraiture was ignored by the art world, and its practitioners were little more than artisans who received commissions from a rather narrow segment of society. Even at the New York Yacht Club, where many of the artists' patrons gathered, the largest room was devoted to half models and presentation silver, with marine paintings generally relegated to smaller rooms and hallways.

The passage of time has brought new interest in marine art as an expression of the American character and ideals during a formative period. At the New York Yacht Club a fine arts commission was formed in the 1980s to preserve the collection, which is now seen as an important assemblage, portraying not only great moments in the annals of yachting but also the coming of age of both New York City and the nation.

1 John Rousmaniere et al., The Low Black Schooner: Yacht America 1851-1945 (Mystic Seaport Museum Stores, Mystic, Connecticut, 1986), p. 27.

2 The information about Martino contained in this article is based on a letter from Roberto V. Romano to Eric Swenson, dated July 19, 1991.

3 John Parkinson Jr. and Robert W. Carrick, The History of the New York Yacht Club, vol. 1 (New York Yackt Club, New York, 1975), pp. 88-89.

ROBERT B. MACKAY is the director of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities with headquarters in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.