Oilpainting on canvas -
Hünten, Franz Johann Wilhelm - Shipping on the Bosphorus off the Turkish coast 1869 - Photo Copyright is with the FineArtEmporium - Go back to the Maritime Sales Category

Presented by the FineArtEmporium in Hamburg.

More images of the picture are below - here is first a close-up view of the vessel with a small Turkish sailing vessel and the coastline in the background:

This painting shows the typical style of Huenten`s best works: with a realistic handling of the vessel and the topographical details and an atmospheric handling of the sky, the light and the sea (eg. with beautiful light reflections on the waves).

Here is a detail view of the valuable original frame:

And a enlarged view of the bow with the white painted figure head and another local sailing boat in the background:

As the detail view shows the gun are ready for action, maybe the British vessel is on its way to a fight against Turkish ships of the line - or the artist just thought that it is more decorative to show the gun doors open...The overall composition gives the viewer the impression, that this proud ship "rules the waves" at this coastline and that it will protect the people living there from any enemy which would come from the sea.

Franz Huenten was born in Hamburg where he received a training as a decorative painter first before he became a student of Friedrich Heimerdinger in Hamburg. From 1847-1850 he was trained by Hermann Mevius and Johann Wilhelm Schirmer at the Academy in Duesseldorf (which had a high reputation in Germany, Europe and the United States of America - and which was in fact around the middle of the last century one of the leading academies in the world). Afterwards he returned to Hamburg and became one of the most appreciated 19th Century marine artists in Germany. He travelled a lot (by sea of cause) and visited the Benelux countries, Scandinavia, Great Britain, the Mediterrenean and Northern America. The "Hamburg-Amerika Linie" commissioned several paintings at him for their packet ships sailing to the United States. From 1851 on he exhibited his marine paintings in Wiebaden, Vienna, Dresden, Duesseldorf, Munich, Hamburg and other places. Works by him can be found in several museums, including the Kunsthalle Hamburg, the Kunsthalle Kiel, the National Gallery Berlin, the Altonaer Museum and the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum. The Maritime Museum of Peter Tamm owns several works by his hand as well. This Museum Quality Painting in outstanding condition is preserved in the Private Collection of a Lady in Indianapolis.