Replenishing the Ship's Larder with Codfish off the Newfoundland Coast
1811–ca. 1813
Medium
Watercolor and gouache on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
5 13/16 x 8 5/8 in. (14.8 x 21.9 cm)
Classification
Watercolor
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1942
Accession Number
42.95.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the early 19th century, cod fishery off Newfoundland's Grand Banks was a cornerstone North American maritime economy, sustaining ships on long voyages and fueling trade across the Atlantic. Pavel Petrov Svinin, a diplomat and artist who traveled to the United States from 1811 to 1813, captured this vital activity in *Replenishing the Ship Larder with Codfish the Newfoundland Coast*. His small-scale watercolor and gouache, executed around that time, depicts sailors hauling fresh cod aboard a vessel amid the rugged coastal waters, with ships and perhaps whales visible in the distance—evoking ...
About the Artist
Pavel Petrovich Svinin · 1787–1839
Pavel Petrovich Svinin (1787–1839) was a Russian diplomat, writer, and amateur artist whose visual record of early American life constitutes one of the most vivid and historically valuable documentary accounts of the United States in the early nineteenth century. Born in Russia in 1787, Svinin received a broad education and pursued a career in the Russian foreign service, which brought him to the ...