Paul Jean Clays - Ships Lying Near Dordrecht [1870]

Paul Jean Clays - Ships Lying Near Dordrecht [1870], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Paul Jean Clays (November 27, 1819 – February 10, 1900), Belgian artist, was born in Bruges, and died in Brussels. He was one of the most esteemed marine of his time, and early in his career he substituted a sincere study of nature for the extravagant and artificial conventionality of most of his predecessors. He painted the peaceful life of rivers, the poetry of wide estuaries, the regulated stir of roadsteads and ports. And while he thus broke away from old traditions he also threw off the trammels imposed on him by his master, the marine painter Theodore Gudin (1802–1880). Endeavouring only to give truthful expression to the nature that delighted his eyes, he sought to render the limpid salt atmosphere, the weight of waters, the transparence of moist horizons, the gem-like sparkle of the sky.

[Oil on canvas, 75 x 110.2 cm]