Jacob Westervelt of NYC
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Jacob Westervelt of NYC
| Donn Westervelt (View posts) | Posted: 6 Jan 2003 12:23PM GMT |
Classification: Query
To respond to questions about Jacob Aaron Westervelt of New York City:
"Jacob A. Westervelt
The block bounded by Third, Goerck and Houston Streets and the East River held Jacob A. Westervelt's shipyard. He constructed more vessels of medium tonnage than any builder of his time. He was born in Bergen County, New Jersey, in 1800, and went to sea as a lad of 14, and he made several voyages before settling down to learn shipbuilding. He was apprenticed to Christian Bergh, remaining four years. Without graduating, he undertook the construction of two schooners at Charleston, S. C., with his employer's consent, using negro slaves owned by planters in and about Charleston.
Returning to New York with the completion of the schooners, Westervelt became a partner with Mr. Bergh, continuing the association until Bergh retired in 1835, after having built in 15 years 71 vessels from 450 to 600 tons. Westervelt designed and built in connection with Edward Mills, the steamships Washington and Herman, pioneer American ocean liners. Franklin and Havre were the first steam vessels for the Havre Line, followed by Arago and Rhode Island for the Government. Eagle and Morro Castle were built for Spofford Tileston & Company, and Westervelt had great pride in having built the clippers N. B. Palmer and Sweepstakes.
For American and foreign governments Westervelt built many vessels, amongst these the frigate Hope, 2,000 tons, in 1825, for the
Greek Government; Guadalquiver for Spain; Eusiyama for Japan, and Ottawa, Atsego, Kankakee and the sloop-of-war Brooklyn for the United States Navy. Admiral Farragut declared Brooklyn to be the most efficient man-of-war in the American Navy and it had a splendid record in the Civil War.
Jacob A. Westervelt received high political honors and was Mayor of New York in 1852. With his son, Daniel D. Westervelt, he built 50 steamships, 93 ships, 5 barks, 14 schooners, one sloop, two lightships, 11 pilot boats, a total of 181 vessels of 150,624 tons."
http://www.ulster.net/~hrmm/steamboats/steam19.html#jw
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from the Museum of the City of New York:
"Clipper Ship "Sweepstakes"
1853
Fitz Hugh Lane (1804 -1865)
Oil on canvas, 26 X 48 1/2
Signed lower right: Fitz Henry [sic] Lane / Gloucester, Mass / 1853
Bequest of Theodore E. Blake, M50.5
In response to the demands for rapid passage to California after the discovery of gold in 1848, 1853 was a peak year for the construction of United States clipper ships, which were designed for speed. The Sweepstakes was one of forty-eight built that year and the last to be built by the renowned Westervelt shipyard. The economic depression of 1857 reduced the demand for ships and hastened the demise of New York's wooden ship-building industry.
The diary of Robert Underhill, which records his 1856 travels on the Sweepstakes, reveals that Jacob Westervelt, whose sons Daniel and Aaron owned the yard that built the ship, was also traveling on this voyage to San Francisco and the Orient.1 Underhill's entries make clear that the older Westervelt, retired from active participation in his family's business, recognized the economic situation facing the port of New York and was seeking other possible venues for the family business.
The Sweepstakes, depicted here in New York Harbor, was owned by Chambers and Heiser, and for her first four voyages she sailed under the command of Captain George E. Lane, a distant cousin of the artist.2
Though black-hulled like other clippers, she bore a stripe of gold found on only a few others and was distinguished for "her graceful model and trim rigging & elegant cabins & [and] & the comfortable and airy quarters provided for the crew, replacing the old forecastle, whose middle-passage horrors have tasked the pens of our nautical writers."3 Sweepstakes gained celebrity for her record-breaking seventy-four-day run from New York to Bombay in 1857.
Fitz Hugh Lane was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and probably taught himself to paint before going to work in 1832 as a lithographer, first in Gloucester and then in Boston. By 1841, having returned to Gloucester, he began exhibiting his paintings in Boston and New York, and by 1850 he had developed his distinctive and innovative style of luministic marine paintings, strongly influenced by the English marine painter Robert Salmon.4 Lane's visits to New York provided him with a way to earn money by filling commissions from ship owners, builders and captains with standard, though highly competent, portraits of their vessels. The peculiar signature on this painting is not unique.5 Lane did not sign every painting. His executor and close friend Joseph L. Stevens signed some after his death, and several variations of his signature can be found.6
Notes:
1 Robert Underhill's journal is in the Manuscript Department, New-York Historical Society.
2 A family tree, developed by former Paintings Department intern Angela Blake from her extensive research at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, shows the family connection between artist and seaman and suggests that Theodore E. Blake, who donated the painting to the Museum, was a collateral descendant of the captain's. George Lane may have commissioned the painting, as such commissions were common among sea captains at that period.
3 Harper's New Monthly Magazine, quoted in Helen La Grange, Clipper Ships of America and Great Britain, 1833 -1869 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1936), p. 201.
4 See "Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804 -1865," in John Caldwell and Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), vol. 1, p. 492, describing Lane's "refined colorism, subtle composition, and beautifully painted surface."
5 The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns The Golden State Entering New York Harbor, which bears the signature "Fitz Henry Lane" on the reverse of the canvas.
6 John Wilmerding, Sarofim Professor of American Art at Princeton University and author of American Marine Painting (New York: Abrams, 1987), examined the painting in June 1993 and believes that it is by Fitz Hugh Lane with "no additional hands at work." He felt that Stevens or someone else might have been involved in the signature "Fitz Henry Lane.""
http://www.mcny.org/Painting/pttcat26.htm
Hope this helps.
"Jacob A. Westervelt
The block bounded by Third, Goerck and Houston Streets and the East River held Jacob A. Westervelt's shipyard. He constructed more vessels of medium tonnage than any builder of his time. He was born in Bergen County, New Jersey, in 1800, and went to sea as a lad of 14, and he made several voyages before settling down to learn shipbuilding. He was apprenticed to Christian Bergh, remaining four years. Without graduating, he undertook the construction of two schooners at Charleston, S. C., with his employer's consent, using negro slaves owned by planters in and about Charleston.
Returning to New York with the completion of the schooners, Westervelt became a partner with Mr. Bergh, continuing the association until Bergh retired in 1835, after having built in 15 years 71 vessels from 450 to 600 tons. Westervelt designed and built in connection with Edward Mills, the steamships Washington and Herman, pioneer American ocean liners. Franklin and Havre were the first steam vessels for the Havre Line, followed by Arago and Rhode Island for the Government. Eagle and Morro Castle were built for Spofford Tileston & Company, and Westervelt had great pride in having built the clippers N. B. Palmer and Sweepstakes.
For American and foreign governments Westervelt built many vessels, amongst these the frigate Hope, 2,000 tons, in 1825, for the
Greek Government; Guadalquiver for Spain; Eusiyama for Japan, and Ottawa, Atsego, Kankakee and the sloop-of-war Brooklyn for the United States Navy. Admiral Farragut declared Brooklyn to be the most efficient man-of-war in the American Navy and it had a splendid record in the Civil War.
Jacob A. Westervelt received high political honors and was Mayor of New York in 1852. With his son, Daniel D. Westervelt, he built 50 steamships, 93 ships, 5 barks, 14 schooners, one sloop, two lightships, 11 pilot boats, a total of 181 vessels of 150,624 tons."
http://www.ulster.net/~hrmm/steamboats/steam19.html#jw
= = = = =
from the Museum of the City of New York:
"Clipper Ship "Sweepstakes"
1853
Fitz Hugh Lane (1804 -1865)
Oil on canvas, 26 X 48 1/2
Signed lower right: Fitz Henry [sic] Lane / Gloucester, Mass / 1853
Bequest of Theodore E. Blake, M50.5
In response to the demands for rapid passage to California after the discovery of gold in 1848, 1853 was a peak year for the construction of United States clipper ships, which were designed for speed. The Sweepstakes was one of forty-eight built that year and the last to be built by the renowned Westervelt shipyard. The economic depression of 1857 reduced the demand for ships and hastened the demise of New York's wooden ship-building industry.
The diary of Robert Underhill, which records his 1856 travels on the Sweepstakes, reveals that Jacob Westervelt, whose sons Daniel and Aaron owned the yard that built the ship, was also traveling on this voyage to San Francisco and the Orient.1 Underhill's entries make clear that the older Westervelt, retired from active participation in his family's business, recognized the economic situation facing the port of New York and was seeking other possible venues for the family business.
The Sweepstakes, depicted here in New York Harbor, was owned by Chambers and Heiser, and for her first four voyages she sailed under the command of Captain George E. Lane, a distant cousin of the artist.2
Though black-hulled like other clippers, she bore a stripe of gold found on only a few others and was distinguished for "her graceful model and trim rigging & elegant cabins & [and] & the comfortable and airy quarters provided for the crew, replacing the old forecastle, whose middle-passage horrors have tasked the pens of our nautical writers."3 Sweepstakes gained celebrity for her record-breaking seventy-four-day run from New York to Bombay in 1857.
Fitz Hugh Lane was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and probably taught himself to paint before going to work in 1832 as a lithographer, first in Gloucester and then in Boston. By 1841, having returned to Gloucester, he began exhibiting his paintings in Boston and New York, and by 1850 he had developed his distinctive and innovative style of luministic marine paintings, strongly influenced by the English marine painter Robert Salmon.4 Lane's visits to New York provided him with a way to earn money by filling commissions from ship owners, builders and captains with standard, though highly competent, portraits of their vessels. The peculiar signature on this painting is not unique.5 Lane did not sign every painting. His executor and close friend Joseph L. Stevens signed some after his death, and several variations of his signature can be found.6
Notes:
1 Robert Underhill's journal is in the Manuscript Department, New-York Historical Society.
2 A family tree, developed by former Paintings Department intern Angela Blake from her extensive research at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, shows the family connection between artist and seaman and suggests that Theodore E. Blake, who donated the painting to the Museum, was a collateral descendant of the captain's. George Lane may have commissioned the painting, as such commissions were common among sea captains at that period.
3 Harper's New Monthly Magazine, quoted in Helen La Grange, Clipper Ships of America and Great Britain, 1833 -1869 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1936), p. 201.
4 See "Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804 -1865," in John Caldwell and Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), vol. 1, p. 492, describing Lane's "refined colorism, subtle composition, and beautifully painted surface."
5 The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns The Golden State Entering New York Harbor, which bears the signature "Fitz Henry Lane" on the reverse of the canvas.
6 John Wilmerding, Sarofim Professor of American Art at Princeton University and author of American Marine Painting (New York: Abrams, 1987), examined the painting in June 1993 and believes that it is by Fitz Hugh Lane with "no additional hands at work." He felt that Stevens or someone else might have been involved in the signature "Fitz Henry Lane.""
http://www.mcny.org/Painting/pttcat26.htm
Hope this helps.