Theodor Weber (Leipzig, 1838 - Paris, 1907)

Marine - Scène de Gros Temps dans un Port

Oil on canvas

Size: 55cm x 33cm (canvas); 86cm x 61 cm (frame)

Signed 

Weber’s painting presents a distinctly nineteenth-century marine, updating the traditional scenes associated with the ‘marine’ genre. These usually recall the majestic seascapes of the Dutch masters – the van de Veldes, Jan Porcellis (Ghent, 1583 – Zoeterwoude, 1632) – with the calm composure of the white sails towering over the powerful galleys and cannon smoke; or the sublime seascapes of Turner with tempestuous waves dwarfing the masts of a steadfast but teetering ship. Instead, Weber’s picture depicts a more industrial subject. A dirty trail of smoke floats off from a factory port and there is even a company stamp imprinted on one of the sails. This is a marine fit for an age of manufactured industry.

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But despite its smoggy, industrial atmosphere, the oils in Weber’s picture glow with a vital freshness. Under a bright light, the colours begin to shine in brilliant and playful balances. Flecks of pink dance around the canvas: reflecting off the clouds, onto that thin strip of wood visible from the shed on the pontoon, and then into the top sail of the ship in the centre background. This play of dappled colours finds its way into the waves which shine in brilliant, speckled crests. Weber’s marine is just as meticulous in its detail as it is masterful in its distribution of colour; the seascape is aglow with this dynamic spread of colour across the canvas. The dawning auroras of pinks, light-blues, and whites filter any sense of smoggy dirt suggested by the industrial subjects; the human endeavour amongst the waves is here bathed with a sublime beauty. The scene shines as if the salt spray itself were shooting up, dashing specks of refracted colour across our view of the harbour.