James Bard (American, 1815 to 1897) – Ship Portraitist
Working in Greenwich Village, New York, James Bard and his twin brother John collaborated together in the early nineteenth century and became the preeminent maritime artists of their time. After the American Revolution and War of 1812, the young American republic experienced a burst of financial growth and national pride. Paintings of sailing ships and steamers, which depicted the speed, beauty and advancements in industry and commerce, were especially popular. The meticulous details of the ships in their paintings reveal that the Bard brothers often worked off the blueprints and made visits to the ships during construction.
In winter of 1849, John Bard appears to have fallen into a period of personal decline and subsequently ended his partnership with his brother. During the early 1850s, James Bard continued to receive numerous painting commissions and appears to have matured as an artist. Typical Bard nuances include numerous oversized flags with the ship’s names clearly visible, sprays of water off the bow and side paddle wheel, small figures of the captain and crew formally dressed in black, and meticulously drafted ships shown at sea.
the following note is courtesy of Skinner Inc:
A native New Yorker, Bard is best known for his paintings of Hudson River steamships. Although he was a self-taught artist, his work is far from primitive. In his book American Marine Painting, art historian John Wilmerding notes that Bard’s “images have certain characteristics of primitive painting: flat patterning, naive scaling and spatial relationships, and bright arbitrary coloring. But Bard was more sophisticated than most primitive painters, a fact embodied in his actual measurements of ships and in his effort to record correctly what he saw. Innocent as he was, what (Bard) chose to paint was transforming American painting and life.”