Winslow Homer - The Fog Warning, Halibut Fishing

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) - The Fog Warning Halibut Fishing (1885)
USA 32c Stamp Issued 1998
Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Winslow Homer may be one of America's best loved artists from the late 19th Century.  He was based in seaside Maine for the majority of his life.  His works are famed for capturing the power and beauty of the sea when it is at it's most perilous.  This painting is typical of many of his works, where men are dwarfed by the huge waves and impending weather.  

Homer also captured many sullen and powerful female figures in many of his works, as he documented everyday life in seaside towns and rural settings in America and England.  His work continues to give the viewer an idea of the lives and times of people in these regions in the late 1800s.


This is the last stamp of the 1998 series of stamps featuring works of great American artists.  

Ivan Aivazovsky - Seashore

(Иван Константинович Айвазовский)  Ivan Aivazovsky (1819-1900) - Seashore. 1840. Oil on canvas. 

Russia Stamp Issued 1967

Held at The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Aivazovsky's work has an uncanny similarity to some of the works of Turner in Britain, as both were very comfortable with dramatic and realistic seascapes with tall ships in moody weather.  This artist spent a great deal of time in Constantinople with many of his works now exhibited in Turkey, the Ukraine and Russia.  He was born of Armenian parent and worked for much of his time in coastal Crimea.  He was also commissioned as an artist for the Russian Navy.

Heather Belle - Artist Unknown

Heather Belle (Artist Unknown) - Completed c. 1860

Romance of Sail Stamp Series issued 1998 Australia

Held in the Crowther Collection - State Library of Tasmania

This boat was built in 1855 and it mainly traded on the route from Sydney to Melbourne, although it did once complete a speedy passage from Melbourne to Britain in 67 days in 1856.  The boat had a relatively long life before being broken up in Balmain Sydney in 1894.

This is one of four ships that are depicted in this series: Romance of Sail.

Thomas Robertson - Marco Polo

Thomas Robertson (1819-1873) - Marco Polo 1859 

Australian Stamp issued 1998 - Romance of Sail Series

La Trobe Collection - State Library of Victoria

Robertson spent most of his life at sea, drawing pictures of ships, harbours and life in the ports of Australia and New Zealand in the mid 19th Century.  This painting was completed shortly before he became the master of the Lightning which ploughed the seas between Australia and New Zealand from 1860.

The artists eventually moved to Japan before his death in 1873 in Yokohama.

This stamp is one of a series of four stamps depecting the Romance of Sail - issued in 1998 by Australia Post.

J Scott - Flying Cloud Off Whitby

J Scott - Flying Cloud Off Whitby (1871)

Australia 5c Stamp issued 1998 - Maritime Heritage - Romance of Sail

Held at the Australian National Maritime Museum

Painted in 1871 by John Scott, this picture depicts the three-masted extreme clipper ship Flying Cloud sailing off the port of Whitby, North Yorkshire. An American flag is on its mizzen-mast spanker boom and a house flag on its main mast. In 1854, the famous ship made the journey between New York and San Francisco in 89 days and eight hours, creating a world record that was not broken until 1989. (Commentary: Courtesy Australian National Maritime Museum).

This is one of four stamps of the "Romance of Sail" series from 1998.