Isaac SAILMAKER (1633-1721, English)
A British Man-o’war Running Past Eddystone Lighthouse
oil on canvas
26 ¼ x 49 ½ inches
Price: Sold
Isaac Sailmaker was known as 'the father of British sea painting'. He ranks among the country's first marine artists. Born in Holland, he came to England very young and worked in the household of art dealer George Geldorf, developing a style that provided a highly detailed record of the British navy. His hand is recognizable through substantial clues. He almost always worked within a restrained palette primarily of greys, greens, and black. His paintings of Eddystone Lighthouse are amongst the best known and most highly valued.
The Eddystone rocks, in the English Channel off Plymouth, were a considerable danger to shipping in the seventeenth century. In 1698 Henry Winstanley succeeded in building a lighthouse on one of the rocks and although secured to the rock by iron anchorage bars. It was modified significantly in 1699; however, it did could not stand up to the tumultuous weather and the structure was washed away in the hurricane of 1703. The five lighthouses of Eddystone can be seen in an illustration below:
Isaac Sailmaker’s painting dates from the second decade of the eighteenth century and shows the third version of the Eddystone Lighthouse, known as ‘Rudyard’s Light’ which was erected in 1708. This version was built by John Rudyard – it was built of brick and concrete with a wooden casing that was close in design to the hull of a ship. A number of the representations were executed by artists who did not see the lighthouse in the flesh in its completed state and as a result, depict it erroneously as clad in stone as opposed to wood. It stood twenty-one meters high and the light source was a lantern lit by twenty-four candles. The size of this lighthouse was often exaggerated through flexible uses of perspective. In the Sailmaker version the lighthouse appears to be the same size as a full galleon which is fairly accurate whereas in an engraving of 1713 it towers above the people and boats below and behind:
Rudyerd’s Light survived the harsh conditions of the Eddystone reef for nearly fifty years. However, It was eventually destroyed by fire in December 1755 when the lantern caught alight. The lighthouse burnt for several days and before it was completely destroyed. The three keepers were rescued the morning after the fire started and they all suffered from severe burns caused by the wood and molten lead from the roof. One keeper was hit in the face by molten lead and claimed to have accidentally swallowed a molten lump. Tragically he died twelve days later and an autopsy proved this to be true as a seven-ounce piece of lead was found in his stomach.