Still & Wake

Famous sea paintings and the artists behind them

Britain has looked at the sea through its painters for centuries. These are a few famous pictures you can see in public collections, and the artists behind them.

A tall ship heading for a low coast in late afternoon light
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The Van de Veldes and the start of British marine painting

Royal Museums Greenwich traces British sea painting back to the Van de Veldes. Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son crossed to England in the winter of 1672 to 1673. One of the younger Willem's works, A Royal Visit to the Fleet in the Thames Estuary, is almost four metres wide. RMG quotes a curator saying their influence on British marine painting "can hardly be overstated".

J.M.W. Turner

RMG says Turner painted the sea more than any other subject, and that he "defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art". Tate notes his lifelong fascination with the sea, and that he stayed in Margate at the lodging house of a widow, Mrs Booth.

The Fighting Temeraire

The National Gallery's The Fighting Temeraire, dated 1839, shows the old warship being towed to be broken up. The gallery calls it one of its, and Britain's, most popular paintings.

Snow Storm

Tate holds Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, exhibited in 1842.

A square-rigged ship running before the wind over a white-crested sea
Running Before the Wind.

Claude Monet: boats on the Seine

French painter Claude Monet also painted boats, but the river is his setting here. The Musée de l’Orangerie’s Argenteuil (1875) shows sailing boats at anchor on the Seine, with red hulls and white sails against blue water. This is a different setting from the British sea paintings by Turner above. Look at how the masts organise the picture as well as the boats.

John Constable

Tate also holds a sea picture by John Constable: Chain Pier, Brighton, dated 1826 to 1827.

Our ship prints borrow from that long tradition of ships at sea.

How to look at a sea painting

Start with the light. Most sea pictures are really about weather: where the sun is, how much cloud there is, whether the water's calm or heaving. Then look at the horizon. A low horizon gives the sky the drama; a high one puts you down among the waves. Finally, find the boat, and notice how small it often is. Painters of the sea don't often make the ship the biggest thing in the picture.

Seeing them for yourself

The National Gallery, Tate Britain and Royal Museums Greenwich all hold sea paintings, and each lists what is on display on its own website. Check before you go, as works move between rooms and loans.

A sea picture of your own

A sea picture works hardest in a room you sit in, where the light changes through the day. If these paintings make you want the sea on your wall, see our ship prints, sailing prints or coastal prints. For a sea-loving friend, browse our nautical gifts. For the boat you own, we can make a print from your photo.

A framed sailing boat painting in a seaside living room, a harbour through the window.
A sea picture in a room you actually sit in.

Sources

Published .

Written by Craig Fearn, Still & Wake. Last updated .

Craig Fearn runs Still & Wake. He writes the guides and journal.

Questions, answered

Who is the most famous painter of the sea?
No museum we checked gives one answer. Royal Museums Greenwich says Turner painted the sea more than any other subject, and calls the Van de Veldes the founders of British marine painting.
Where can I see The Fighting Temeraire?
At the National Gallery in London. The gallery dates the painting to 1839.