Boat Oil Painting Reproductions

Boats and ships in marine art

Marine art, also called maritime art, is figurative art that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea, and it was particularly strong from the 17th to the 19th centuries. In practice the term covers art showing shipping on rivers and estuaries, beach scenes, and all art showing boats, without any rigid distinction. Strictly speaking, maritime art should always include some element of human seafaring, whereas marine art would also include pure seascapes without any human element.

That definition explains the range of subjects here. A quay at high water, a fishing fleet under sail in a strong wind, a calm lake at sunset, a rowing boat on a river at the close of day: each belongs to the genre in style and in subject, and each asks a different thing of the artist. Sailing scenes and nautical still life sit beside broad landscapes, and the styles run across the three centuries in which the genre was strongest, from a Dutch port view by Abraham Storck to river work by the Impressionist artists Alfred Sisley and Vincent van Gogh. J.M.W. Turner, an English Romantic painter, is credited with elevating the status of landscape painting, and Ivan Aivazovsky, a Russian Romantic painter, is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art.

Famous boat paintings

These are the boat and ship paintings buyers ask for most often.

• The Slave Ship by J.M.W. Turner, originally titled Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhon coming on, was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1840.
• Fishing Boats at Sea by Vincent van Gogh, a sea subject from an artist better known inland.
• Rowing Boats on the Banks of the Oise at Auvers, a river view from the same hand.
• Boats on the Loing River by Alfred Sisley, an Impressionist river scene of blue water and moored craft under an open sky.
• The Lagoon with Boats, Gondolas, and Rafts by Francesco Guardi, a Venetian view of the lagoon.
• A Dutch Ship Entering a Mediterranean Port by Abraham Storck, a Dutch subject carried into Mediterranean light.
• Ship in stormy seas by Andreas Achenbach, and A Boat Beached in a Port at Low Tide by Richard Parkes Bonington.
• Landscape on Volga, Boats by the Riverbank by Isaac Levitan, and Young Woman in a Boat by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
• Rapallo boats and Boat Trip by Wassily Kandinsky, both early coastal works.
• View of Amalfi with boats by Vincenzo Caprile, with its red roofs above blue water, and Boat House, Prospect Park by William Merritt Chase.

Browse related collections

This collection sits inside a larger family of water subjects, from still life on a quay to the ocean itself.

• Seascape oil paintings, the wider sea and ocean group.
• Seascapes with boats and ships, the same subject seen from deep water.
• Sea paintings for storm, surf and sunrise.
• Sunset oil paintings for late light on the water.
• Landscape oil paintings, the parent group for every land and water view.

Frequently asked questions

Are these original paintings or prints? Each one is an original hand-painted oil on canvas, made by a studio artist who works from the museum image. Nothing in this gallery is a print or a machine copy, so the brushwork, the texture and the white of a sail are laid down by hand.

What counts as marine art? Marine art covers ships and the sea; in practice it also takes in shipping on rivers and estuaries, beach scenes and any artwork that features a boat. A sailboat on a lake and a ship in a storm both belong to the genre, whatever the style or the period.

Can I order a size that fits my wall? Yes. Every painting here comes in seven sizes, small or large, with an optional frame, and you approve a photo of the finished canvas before it ships. Free worldwide shipping and 90-day returns apply.