Ship Portraits in Nova Scotian Collections

In 1985, the Dalhousie Art Gallery invited Dr. Chalres Armour, then the University Archivist (now retired), to organize an exhibition of ship portraits. The exhibition, which included 24 fine examples of marine portraiture and was accompanied by an illustrated brochure, proved to be of great interest to the community, whether art-lovers or marine enthusiasts. It is with great pleasure, then, that we are once again able to work with Dr. Armour on a similar but much more comprehensive look at ship portraiture.

  A well known authority on shipping and shipbuilding in the Maritime provinces, Dr. Armour has over the years built up an extensive collection of British and Canadian shipping registers and shipping records at the Dalhousie Archives. He has given numerous illustrated lectures on this topic to schools and historical societies. His enthusiastic participation and dilligent research has resulted in this elegant exhibition of 41 ship portraits, each one accompanied by an extended label filled with fascinating information about the vessel, the artist, and the painting. The current exhibition also affords the opportunity to revisit the essay published in the brochure that accompanied the earlier exhibition -- an essay in which Dr. Armour traces the growth of the shipbuilding industry in Nova Scotia during the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the flourishing international shipping trade which developed out of it. He has revised and updated the essay, and added to its bibliography. 

   We are also delighted that the noted marine artist Graham Young agreed to assist Dr. Armour in his research, especially with regard to the artistic aspects of ship portraits. Mr. Young's essay, which follows Dr. Armour's is titled Popular Marine Art in Nova Scotia, and gives engaging insights into the work of marine artists, from the relatively untaught "pier-head" painters, to fully-trained professionals, each in their own way going about their business with a special passion for their subject. Mr. Young's essay, and his informative comments on each painting (which havebeen incorporated into Dr. Armour's extended labels), provide an enriched experience of these works, and we very much appreciated his contributions.

  We are grateful to all the lenders to this exhibition, both public and private, for the loan of these beautiful works from their collections. On behalf of the Gallery, I would like to thank all those who assited Dr. Armour in his research, or who helped to arrange the loans: Bernard Riordan, Judy Dietz and Mora Dianne O'Niell of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Marven Moore, Lynn Richards and Valerie Lenethen of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic; Franziska Kruschen of the Acadia Art Gallery; Garry Shutlak of the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management; Hansel Cook of the Dalhousie University Archives; Heather Wareham of the Maritime History Archives, Memorial University; Dr. Niels Jannasch, Capt. Kai Boggild, and Hedy Armour.

Excerpt from Foreward essay of the exhibition catalogue written by Susan Gibson Garvey.