LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  AMERICAN ART  / 

28

Another owner JAMES E. BUTTERSWORTH (1817-1894) The Match between the Yachts 'Vision' and 'Me...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:350,000.00 - 450,000.00 USD
Another owner JAMES E. BUTTERSWORTH (1817-1894) The Match between the Yachts 'Vision' and 'Me...
Another owner
JAMES E. BUTTERSWORTH
(1817-1894)
The Match between the Yachts 'Vision' and 'Meta'- Rough Weather
signed "J.E. Buttersworth"
(lower right)
oil on canvas
30 5/8 x 40 5/8 in. (77.8 x 103.2 cm)
painted circa 1873 <p>Estimate: $350,000-450,000 <p>Provenance
Private Collection Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S., 1982 Private Collection <p> According to The New York Times edition of October 7, 1873 the race between the sloop yachts, Meta, of the Brooklyn Yacht Club, and Vision of the New York Yacht Club took place on October 6, 1873. The course was from Buoy #5, off Sandy Hook Light, seventeen and a half nautical miles to windward and return. The steamboat Wm. Fletcher, chartered especially for the occasion to accommodate the judges and a few friends of each of the owners, also served as stake-boat at both starting and turning points. There were over 32 column inches of ink spilled in The Times' coverage of this highly publicized grudge match between the Brooklyn Yacht Club and New York Yacht Club. It is likely that Buttersworth based his picture on the florid account of the race in The Times. His visual narrative mirrors the written text, though the sequence of events has been condensed and distances compressed somewhat. The Times tells us that "previous to making for the starting point, both yachts took in the bonnets of their jibs and double reefed their mainsails, while at the same time they sent down and housed their topmasts." In Buttersworth's painting, both Meta and Vision have executed this maneuver, and have already started the race at 11: 47AM as the stake-boat, Wm. Fletcher, is standing to windward on her way to re-position herself as the rounding mark. Meta at this point in the race is described in both print and paint as "making considerable headway, and standing up well against the heavy seaway and furious wind, and rapidly outfooting her opponent." Buttersworth has juxtaposed the Vision at this time being away astern and standing off shore on the starboard tack, and laboring considerably in the heavy sea. As each wave met her she dipped her nose right under, and had her decks washed from stem to stern." Again Buttersworth, in the picture plane, renders redolent in 3-D the reporter's prose contrasting the vastly differing situations aboard the two vessels. The Meta, on the contrary, seemed to ride the waves and proved herself, contrary to general expectation, a thorough seaworthy craft." Remarkably, both the artist's and the reporter's rendition of the race are virtually in sync. "She (Meta) went about at 12:20 (about the time Buttersworth portrayed the race) on the starboard tack, still increasing her lead. The Vision at the same time when about abreast of the Highlands lowered her peak, and a second later half lowered her mainsail, gibed about, stood away, with her sheets started, for the point of the 'Hook,' evidently having had enough of the rough weather and unable to keep on." Buttersworth has captured the narrative of the race between the Meta and the Vision well enough to satisfy the most demanding of diarists. However, Buttersworth has also conveyed in the painting the interaction of wind and wave to express the prevailing weather conditions, a sense of speed in the yachts and the sting of salt spray on the faces of their crews. Buttersworth's paintings are more than documents or commemorative pieces - they truly evoke the spirit of his era, and characterize the "Golden Age of Yachting." But perhaps what piqued Buttersworth's interest in the race between Meta and Vision was its ironic nature. The race was never finished as Vision withdrew. Meta "held on to her course and intended to sail over the whole distance and claim the prize." However, the Wm. Fletcher ran for home when the seas became too high for her to stand. The judge for the Vision invoked section 13 of the rules which provided "that the judge's boat shall act as stake-boat at the turning point," and that inasmuch as the judge's boat did not determine the distance or act as stake-boat for yachts to round, there was no race. Maybe Buttersworth was intrigued by the fact that there was supposedly $25,000 plus of outside wagers left hanging in the balance dependent on a referee's decision. That the Meta was missing for two days must have caused a certain degree of mirth in some yachting circles. And let us not forget the fact that yachtsmen in the late 19th century were characters that were larger than life. George H. Beling, Commodore of the Brooklyn Yacht Club and owner of Meta, was such a Brobdingnagian figure. Captain Beling was an avid yachtsman and a fierce competitor. He was suspected of shifting ballast while racing in his previous sloop, Kaiser Wilhelm, and as a result he was blackballed by the New York Yacht Club. Beling responded by having P. McGiehan of Pamrapo, New Jersey, build the Meta. With Captain Joseph Ellsworth and his Bayonne crew on board, Meta was considered the fastest single-stick vessel in the country. Beling made it a point to enter Meta for all races that were possible. Meta is shown in Buttersworth's painting flying her owner's private signal of two black balls, clearly, a not too subtle reference to what he thought about the club across the river. Beling's unrepentant attitude and sense of humor are the stuff of legend. In their day, men like Beling were legion. The Match between the Yachts 'Vision' and 'Meta' - Rough Weather captured all the elements at play that day, and while the victor of the race was not to be decided, Beling's warhorse Meta was recorded at her best by America's finest marine painter. We are grateful to Claas van der Linde, Annie Roe-Rever and Paul Worman for their help in researching this lot. <p>Thanks also to the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.
Sign In to Bookmark Lot