Artwork Page for A Storm Behind the Isle of Wight

Details / Information for A Storm Behind the Isle of Wight

A Storm Behind the Isle of Wight

c.179(?)

Julius Caesar Ibbetson

(British, 1759–1817)
Culture
England, 18th century
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 70 x 85.5 x 5.5 cm (27 9/16 x 33 11/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 50.8 x 67.6 cm (20 x 26 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Henry W. Kent 1948.461
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

The scene depicts a family's distress upon finding that one of its members has drowned off the rocky shore of the Isle of Wight during a storm. A ship sinks in the wild sea, amid swirling dark clouds and lightning flashes. The artist had visited the Isle of Wight in 1791. Ibbetson began his career by copying Dutch landscape paintings for dealers. He is known to have produced copies and fakes in the style of other masters as well.
A horizontally oriented oil painting depicts a stormy coastline with white-capped waves crashing in thick swaths of paint against dark rocks. In the foreground, a light-skinned man in a red coat kneels beside a prone figure, gesturing toward five people on the right shore. Towering, craggy cliffs rise under a turbulent sky of gray and brown clouds. To the left, lightning strikes near a distant ship that becomes hazier beneath a break in the clouds.

A Storm Behind the Isle of Wight

c.179(?)

Julius Caesar Ibbetson

(British, 1759–1817)
England, 18th century

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