Steamboat Thomas Hunt

Period1851

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions29.5 × 49 in. (74.9 × 124.5 cm)

SignedInscribed lower left below image, "This Picture Drawn & Painted by the Order of Captn. A. H. Haggerty;" lower left in water, "Wm Collyer Builder NY / Engine Built by Morgans Works NY;" lower center in water, "A. H. Haggerty, Commander;" lower right in water, "George W. Wright Joiner NY." lower right below image, "Picture Drawn & Painted by James Bard NY 1851 / 686 Washington St.;" reverse canvas stamp, "Prepared / by / Edwd DECHAUX / New-York."

ClassificationsMarine and Seascapes

Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1931

Object number1984.506

DescriptionPainted in profile from the port side, the Thomas Hunt is rendered in the typical precise, draftsman style of James Bard. The white vessel with a black-painted smokestack is ornamented with an elaborately carved paddlebox lunette, a gilded pilot house eagle, a flag on the bow mast that reads "T.H.," a larger flag flying from the stern mast that reads "Thomas Hunt," two white flags on short masts flanking the walking beam that feature depictions of large crabs, as well as patriotic flags and banners. Men in black coats and top hats are posed on the upper and lower decks. The vessel, sailing in a choppy sea, is heading toward a coastline that may depict the Highlands of the Navesink in the left distance. A lighthouse painted white sits on the righthand point of land, and may be the Sandy Hook Lighthouse of 1764. The blue sky is vividly streaked with orange and yellow in imitation of sunset. Splashing water at the bow and the backwash of the paddle wheel represent what has been termed "bubbly water" by Bard scholars.
Curatorial RemarksThe vessel may have been named for Thomas G. Hunt (1799-1878) of Brooklyn, NY. Hunt was primarily a cloth merchant in New York City, but he maintained a residence in Rumson. He also built a church in Rumson in 1842 that is now called Bingham Hall, and erected the nearby Port Washington Pavilion Hotel in 1845. With its vivid sunset sky, this Bard painting is much more colorful than most of Bard's ship portraits. NotesThe paddle wheel steamboat Thomas Hunt was built in 1851 for Capt. Anthony H. Haggerty by William Collyer at his boatyard at 12th Street and the East River in Manhattan. When Haggerty became one of the first directors of the Red Bank Steamboat Co., the Hunt became one of their first vessels. It ran on the Red Bank to New York route in 1852-53, then was sold for service on other routes around New York City. The Thomas Hunt, renamed the Valley Girl in 1895, ended its career as an excursion boat until 1910, when it was declared unfit for further service.

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