Whaler 'Lexington' Leaving Nantucket — Hand-Painted Oil on Canvas

A Nantucket whaler outward bound, hand-painted in oil by a skilled artist. Not a print.

Specification

• 100% hand-painted in oil on canvas
• Stretched and mounted on a sturdy black wooden frame
• Artist-grade oils — deep, saturated colour
• Arrives ready to hang

Historical context

Nantucket was the centre of American whaling for over a century, and a voyage from that harbour meant three or four years at sea. Crews sailed to the Pacific and back, rendering oil on deck in brick furnaces, with no contact with home for the duration.

The industry lit the world before petroleum. Whale oil burned cleaner than anything else available, and spermaceti made the finest candles in existence — which is why the trade was worth the risk and why it eventually hunted several species to the edge of extinction. Kerosene, refined from crude oil after 1859, destroyed the market within twenty years.

The paintings survive as a record of a maritime industry that shaped New England and no longer exists. We list this as history rather than as celebration.