In American Waters: The Sea in American Painting

For over 250 years, artists have been inspired to capture the beauty, violence, poetry, and transformative power of the sea in American life. Oceans play a key role in American society no matter where we live, and still today, the sea continues to inspire painters to capture its mystery and power.

In American Waters is a new exhibition in which marine painting is revealed to be so much more than ship portraits. Be transported across time and water on the wave of a diverse range of modern and historical artists including Georgia O’Keeffe, Amy Sherald, Kay WalkingStick, Norman Rockwell, Hale Woodruff, Paul Cadmus, Thomas Hart Benton, Jacob Lawrence, Valerie Hegarty, Stuart Davis, and many more. Discover the sea as an expansive way to reflect on American culture and environment, learn how coastal and maritime symbols moved inland across the United States, and consider what it means to be “in American waters.”

In American Waters is co-created by Austen Bailly, chief curator, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Daniel Finamore, The Russell W. Knight Curator of Maritime Art and History, Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. The exhibition debuted at Peabody Essex Museum on May 29, 2021, and is accompanied by a major multi-author illustrated publication published by Crystal Bridges and the University of Arkansas Press.

This exhibition is co-organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Bob and Becky Alexander, Harrison and Rhonda French Family, Marybeth and Micky Mayfield, Sue and Charles Redfield, Jeff and Sarah Teague | Citizens Bank, and James Zigras.

Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865)
Southern Cross in Boston Harbor, 1851
Oil on canvas
25 1/4 x 38 in. (64.1 x 96.5 cm)
Gift of Stephen Wheatland, 1987
M18639
Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum

Edward Moran (1829 – 1901) The Valley in the Sea, 1862
Oil on canvas
49 ¼ x 73 ¼ x 4 ¼ in. (125.1 x 186.1 x 10.8 cm)
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Martha Delzell Memorial Fund, 70.5, DiscoverNewfields.org

Jan Matulka
View from Ship, about 1932
Oil on canvas
36 × 30 in. (91.4 × 76.2 cm)
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of C. K. Williams II, 2015-8-1
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Reproduced with Permission, The Estate of Jan Matulka.

James Bard (1815-1897)
Steamer Syracuse, 1857
Oil on canvas
29 1/4 × 51 1/4 in. (74.3 × 130.2 cm)
Gift of the estate of Francis B. C. Bradlee, 1928
M4266
Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum

Howard Pyle (1853-1911)
Marooned, 1909
Oil on canvas
40 x 60 in.
Delaware Art Museum
Museum Purchase, 1912