Being a collection of art depicting period seamen.

[JoshuaRed]

I'd like to share some period images I've been recently collecting, which show sailors & assorted other working joes of the GAOP. I'll continue to add to this thread as I find new ones.
Let's start with some Canaletto: (b. 1697, Venezia, d. 1768, Venezia)
Here is a brief bio on this artist: Zuane Antonio Canal, Venetian painter, the son of Bernardo Canal, a well-known scenery painter at the time. 'Canaletto' — or small canal — as he was soon called, received his training in the studio of his father and his brother, with whom he continued to collaborate for several years. He became the most famous view-painter of the 18th century.

The images I'm posting are crops and details from his paintings that date 1720-1735. While most of them are in the coastal canals of Italy, many feature what I'd consider to be fairly common seaman dress, despite the fact that many of the men are gondoliers or ferrymen. Of note to me is how many appear to be wearing sashes. These paintings also show the downright ragged state many commoners dressed in. Ragged yet colorful. Their sails weren't in the best shape either. :)

First up, Rio dei Mendicanti (detail)
1723-24

[Note: The original image Joshua linked to is gone, so I have linked to another version which is not cropped. Mission. 7/8/14]


Next, Grand Canal, Looking East from the Campo San Vio (detail)
1723-24
This is the first of two paintings from this viewpoint, the next one being after 1730. I really like the mural of the ship draught on the wall. The sailor sitting on the ground with his back to the viewer and wearing red trousers appears to possibly be sporting a headscarf of yellow. He's also got his bag around his shoulder with a blanket strung through it. Looking for work, I suppose. Do you think the mural of the ship is a sign indicating that this was a "Water taxi" area where one would hitch a ride out to the ships at anchor?

[Note: Original Image missing, updated to non-cropped image 7/8/14 by Mission]


Next, La Punta della Dogana (Custom Point)
1726-28
Once again, sashes seem to be prevalent. I'm thinking maybe gondoliers wore them to indicate they were for hire, or to draw attention?
[Note: Original Image missing, updated to non-cropped image 7/8/14 by Mission]

Up next we have Return of the Bucentoro to the Molo on Ascension Day (detail)
c. 1732
Both shots are cropped from the same painting. Looks like some red knit caps, short jacket and blue slops? Also beards and 'staches! More sashes too.

[Note: Original Image missing, updated to non-cropped image 7/8/14 by Mission]


So there we have Canaletto! We're fortunate he took the time to render the common workers in his paintings. I've got more artists coming, so stay tuned.

[CaptainCiaran]

Arr! Nice work, Joshua. Thank ye fer posting these detailed paintings and the information about Canaletto. I learned quite a bit and I bet others will, too. What a great hobby ye've started.

[Kalum]

Well in that last picture that one gent definitely appears to be wearing blue slops Joshua. A lot of the clothing seems on par with what the rest of the seafaring community was wearing all over the world at the time.

As Ciaran said...nice work! Learned a few things too

[Fox]

Nice pictures Josh,

I particularly love the jacket the blue-slop man is wearing. Is that a hoodie?

I think you're probably right about the sashes being a sign of them being either gondoliers or Italian. Other period pictures of seamen just don't show sashes very often, and when they do come up they tend to come up all in a group. For example, I can think of four pictures of French seamen wearing sashes from around 1700, but none of English seamen. I suspect this is the same sort of thing, indicative of a fashion for those particular people rather than river-boatmen generally.

Who's up next?

[JoshuaRed]

Thanks gents. That blue jacket is cool, ain't it? It could very well be a hood, but I thought it might also be a neckerchief. (Though it does hang down the back rather far for a kerchief)

Next up, we have Luca Carlevaris (b. 1663, Udine, d. 1730, Venezia)
"Italian painter, engraver and architect, his name also spelled Carlevarijs. He is regarded as the father of 18th-century Venetian view-painting (veduta), for although he was not (as sometimes asserted) the first to specialize in the genre, he approached it with a new seriousness, his training as a mathematician being reflected in his rigorous perspective settings. Carlevaris's artistic inclinations were probably inherited from his father, a painter and designer who died when his son was very young. "

First painting:
Seascape
1690s
This crop shows a group of sailors in the foreground watching a ship trying to avoid being dashed on the rocks. Pretty average group of sailors, like the colors and their nonchalance.
[Note - the original image is gone, I have linked to another version which is not cropped. Mission. 7/8/14]

Second painting:
The Molo with the Ducal Palace
c. 1710
Here is a group of sailors I cropped. I was kind of surprised to see them shirtless in public, but hey, it IS Italy.....
[Note: See previous note. Mission again. 7/8/14]

[Kalum]

Is it just me or does the middle figure in the 1st crop there appear to be female?

[JoshuaRed]

SCANDALOUS!

[Jarlaxle]

I fear nought, the stream is near

Tis always good, aye, to see and hear

The song of the dead

Fall through the wild seas, and into the dread.

[JoshuaRed]

Mutiny! Who dares take my labor of love off topic?!

[John Maddox Roberts]

Is it just my aging eyes, or is the seated figure in the storm scene wearing a sort of Turkish turban-thing wrapped around a fez?

[Fox]

Difficult to tell but it's not impossible. Mediterranean seamen had a lot of fashions that weren't seen elsewhere, and at the time of that painting the Ottoman Empire had been hammering on the back door to Europe for a century or three, so it's not impossible to see Arab fashions or possibly even Arab seamen in Venetian painting of that period.

It has been suggested that the garments this fellow is wearing are Turkish in style, and he's an English merchant captain. If an Englishman can wear Arab dress then I'm sure a Venetian could.

[Edit: The original image was missing. I believe this was the one Ed was originally showing, although I am prepared to be wrong as the title is different. Mission. 7/8/14]

English Merchant Captain, by John Vanderbank, circa 1730.

[JoshuaRed]

That's a good pic - thanks for adding it.

[JoshuaRed]

Here is today's artist:
Cornelis Dusart
Young Man with a Raised Glass
1680s

[Note: Original Image missing, replaced 7/8/14 by Mission.]

It doesn't specifically name him as a seaman, but he has the look so I thought I'd post it. This is a nice candid.

[Gentleman of Fortune]

I really like this one. (young man with raised glass).

This looks to be the really short style of jacket. I don't see cuffs or pockets on this one.

Also, if it is/was painted in the 1680s it is probably one of the earliest pictures of a sailor wearing trousers (I thought the one of Black Beard was one of the first and that is post 1717.

Also... what kind of shoes is he wearing... mules?

GoF

[JoshuaRed]

Here's a detail of the shoes. While I don't doubt this image is 17th century, I'm thinking maybe it's closer to 1690's.

[Fox]

GOF, do you mean this picture of Blackbeard?

[Edit: The original image is gone, but I believe this is the image Ed is referring to. Mission. 7/8/14]

This one dates from 1734, considerably post-dating the Anstis, Bonny and Read pictures showing trousers from the Dutch ed. of the General History, and the "Guayacil" engravings published in 1712. Or do you know of an earlier BB picture showing trousers?

I wonder if the shoes in Josh's latest fantastic offering are sandals. The one on the right foot looks like an Anglo-Saxon turn shoe to me, but his left shoe looks just like a sandal. I've outlined in red what I see when I look at that picture.

Could this be the elusive GAoP sandal we've all been wondering about?

Josh, do you mind if I add this one to my online collection?

[JoshuaRed]

Please by all means! I'll email you the full size pic if you like, it's large.

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Foxe... that was the picture I was thinking about... I thought it was earlier but you are right, it doesn't predate the others....

Still, if it is a 1680-1690 picture it is early for trousers.

Sandal?

Possible, but now In the close up there seems to be a horizontal line of the shoue under where the ankle should be.... I think its a shoe. However, not much of a tounge.

This is great stuff!

GoF

[Mission]

I just went through and tried to update the images in here. (Many of which were lost when the gallery was deleted. For the record, that may have been a mistake. I know I placed some stuff in there to put into threads that now have errors in them.)

Anyhow, there are some neat images in here, so I thought I'd pop it up again. Especially since it was a bit of work to go and find all those images.

[BCarp]

Lots of great seaman images here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/231031140/British-Navy-Sailors

Mostly post GAoP, but still very valuable. Note all of the backwards-worn cocked hats...!

[Mission]

Hats were cocked every which way up until about the mid 1730s when the tricorn style took hold. (Although it wasn't called that at the time.) You see all manner of ways of cocking a hat in artwork dating from the late 17th and early 18th centuries - front, back, one side or the other, both sides, front and back &c.