#peter monamy

After initially apprenticing in London as an interior decorator and sign painter, Peter Monamy reinvented himself as a studio painter specializing in maritime art. During Monamy's lifetime, English maritime art was still very strongly influenced by Dutch art of the previous century, and Monamy himself may have studied in the workshop of the great Dutch painter Willem van de Velde the Younger.

Thomas Walker

Collection: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Peter Monamy was born in London, though his family were originally from the Channel Island of Guernsey and probably of Huguenot (French Protestant) ancestry. He was the first English-born marine painter of note, the genre having been brought to Britain by Dutch artists in the late 17th century. This scene of a storm at sea follows the Dutch tradition of such pictures. Although disaster seems inevitable, the clearing blue sky offers hope. It does not necessarily relate to an actual event, though for contemporary viewers it may have brought to mind the ‘Great Storm’ of 1703 which wrecked many ships at sea.

By Peter Monamy.

Peter Monamy, c. 1707

Moonlit Scene with an Indiaman and other Merchant shipping off a Fortified Town, Circle of Peter Monamy

Oil on canvas