The SS Great Britain in South Street after her maiden voyage to New York in 1845 . Oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches. Designed by the revolutionmy British engineer lsambard Kingdom Brunel, she was the first iron-hulled, screw-driven vessel designed for the transoceanic passenger trade and was the largest ship of her time. The painting is owned by the SS Great Britain Project and was exhaus-
Michaelangelo and Veronese. The second, light, is the chief means by which my pictures exist. As a student I won a scholarship to Paris. I studied the masters in the Louvre, delighted in the Impressionists and sought to understand the modern movements. I painted the streets and the people. The most valuable thing to emerge from all this, in my most impressionable years, was a feeling for light- the way it modifies form, its coloristic influence, the way it can create a mood, its appearance through atmosphere, the color of shadows, reflected light. All this, I discovered, had to be translated into paint. Paint that could be opaque, transparent, or something in between. So there is nothing I can do in painting which does not include a sense of form and the effects of light. These, for me, are the essential means whereby a marine idea becomes what I hope will be an enduring image. This spring we travelled down the East Coast of the USA, and at Mystic I watched Francis as he helped raise an upper topsail on the Charles W. Morgan. He was very excited to be aboard her, since he has known of the ship for many years and has an interest in whalSEA HISTORY 52, WINTER 1989-90
tively researched with their cooperation. It is considered to be the most accurate representation of the ship at this period of her career. Prints are on sale to benefit the restoration of this remarkable ship. Contact: SS Great Britain Project, Bristol, England, or South Street Seaport Museum , Attn: Museum Shop, 207 Front Street , New York, New York 10038.
ing and ships at work in Arctic waters. Before we met he had worked in Kiruna, in the north of Sweden above the Arctic Circle. This experience was so visually astounding that many years later he achieved one of his most impressive paintings, "Dr. Charcot's PourquoiPas? frozen into her winter anchorage at Peterman Island in Antarctica." This was published as a print and was seen by an explorer who had surveyed Antarctica's Graham Land during three winters in the 1930s. He told us that he had known the great Charcot and he vouched for the painting's realism "except for the height of the table ice!" - a precise observation, since Francis had knowingly exaggerated its height in order to mask the sun and keep attention on the glistening Pourquoi Pas? The American story of sail is rich with incident for the history painter, and Francis has long wanted to chronicle the speed and scale of the great clippers. In his most recent painting he has started with the meeting of the Flying Cloud with the NB. Palmer in 1852, both vessels bound from New York to San Francisco. The Cloud, under Captain Cressy, had departed ahead of the Palmer by some eight days. Captain Low in the Palmer, having excellent weather, closed the gap to three days on crossing the
equator. South of the line the Cloud hit heavy gales. At noon on July 1st in about 32° South the Palmer caught up with the Cloud and came alongside. Captain Cressy, challenged by the Palmer's performance, crammed on all sail to the stuns'ls and left the Palmer behind sailing a higher course. This is the moment my husband has illustrated. An afternoon light is seen falling on the scene projecting shadows from the windborne clouds upon the sea. The stuns'ls are filling and the Cloud is plunging forward. The deep ocean is reflective in the middle distance but transparently dark in the foreground. This simple classic picture will be the forerunner of other paintings of American clippers and, in spite of being almost widowed by Francis's absorption in the painting process, I am glad he will go on, and I am glad that others now believe, in growing numbers, that his sense of form and the magical effects of light will live on in the "enduring images" of his art.
Mrs . Smitheman was born in France and completed her college studies in England. As Senior Lecturer, she has taught art and design at degree level. She delights in travel and shares her husband's passion for things maritime. 29