Live Auction 5317Maritime Art
Thomas Baines (King's Lynn 1820-1875 Durban)
Lot 61

Thomas Baines (King's Lynn 1820-1875 Durban)

The American brig Corsica under tow in a flat calm entering Table Bay, off Cape Town, under the command of Captain John Devereux, 1846; and The American brig Corsica lying in Table Bay, off Cape Town, with her foresail backed and digging in her anchor, under the command of Captain John Devereux, 1846 (both illustrated)

Closed5 June 2014

Price Realised

GBP 50,000

Considering selling a similar item?

Discover its value with a complimentary estimate from our specialists.

More Information

How to sell

Thomas Baines (King's Lynn 1820-1875 Durban)
The American brig Corsica under tow in a flat calm entering Table Bay, off Cape Town, under the command of Captain John Devereux, 1846; and The American brig Corsica lying in Table Bay, off Cape Town, with her foresail backed and digging in her anchor, under the command of Captain John Devereux, 1846 (both illustrated)
the first inscribed and dated 'THE CORSICA OF BOSTON ENTERING TABLE BAY AUGUST 1846' (lower centre); the second, signed, inscribed and dated THE CORSICA OF BOSTON CAPT. JOHN DEVEREUX LYING IN TABLE BAY, AUGUST 23 1846 T. BAINES' (lower centre)
oil on canvas
18 x 25 in. (46.7 x 63.5 cm.)
(2)a pair

Henry Kelsey Devereux of Cleveland, Ohio, and thence by descent until bequeathed to the present owner.

Specialist note

Born in Norfolk in 1820, Thomas Baines was the second son of John Thomas Baines, a master mariner, and Mary Ann Watson. After being educated educated privately in King's Lynn, he was apprenticed to a painter of heraldic arms on coach panels and began sketching marine subjects. At the age of twenty-two, he left England for South Africa onboard the Olivia (captained by a family friend) and worked in Cape Town as a scenic and portrait artist, before becoming a marine and portrait painter in 1845 ( the present works are dated 1846). Baines became official war artist during the so-called 'Eighth Frontier War' for the British Army (1851-1852) and, in 1853,. accompanied David Livingstone along the Zambezi - he was one of the first white men to view Victoria Falls. Returning to South Africa in 1869, Baines led one of the first gold prospecting expeditions to Mashonaland in what was later to become Rhodesia.