The Wiscombe Park: Researching a Historic Ship Portrait Attributed to Reginald Arthur Borstel
From Sunderland shipbuilding and Liverpool ownership to Australian waters, a documented 1917 Borstel connection and a dramatic final voyage, the story behind this remarkable marine painting reaches far beyond the canvas.
A Painting That Opened a Maritime Investigation
At first sight, this substantial early 20th-century oil is an impressive portrait of a great sailing ship at sea. The three-masted vessel dominates the composition beneath an extensive spread of canvas, with crew figures visible on deck and her intricate rigging carefully described.
Most importantly, her identity is not in doubt. WISCOMBE PARK is clearly visible upon the bow.
When previously offered at auction, the unsigned painting was catalogued conservatively as English School, early 20th century. Our subsequent research has uncovered a much richer story involving British shipbuilding, Liverpool shipping, Australian maritime history, historic photography and Australian marine painter Reginald Arthur Borstel (1875-1922).
The painting is now cautiously catalogued as attributed to Borstel, circa 1910-1917.
A 281-Foot Ocean-Going Sailing Ship
The scale of the vessel represented is easy to underestimate.
Wiscombe Park was approximately 281 feet long, 42.2 feet in breadth and around 2,228 tons. She was therefore a substantial steel ocean-going merchant ship designed for international deep-sea cargo service.
She was also distinctive.
Large commercial sailing vessels increasingly adopted four-masted barque rigs during this period, while Wiscombe Parkretained an imposing three-masted full-rigged configuration.
The soaring arrangement of masts, yards and sails that gives the painting so much visual impact was therefore also one of the real vessel's defining characteristics.
Built by John Blumer & Co. at Sunderland
Wiscombe Park was built in steel by John Blumer & Co. at Sunderland as yard number 117.
She was launched on 4 November 1891 and completed in 1892 for Ship "Wiscombe Park" Co. Ltd., with G. Windram & Co. of Liverpool acting as managers.
The vessel was registered at Liverpool under Official Number 99361 and carried signal letters WLBP.
A surviving period photograph by F. C. Gould & Son, preserved by Royal Museums Greenwich, provides an invaluable contemporary visual record of the actual ship and her distinctive three-masted rig.
The Flags May Hold an Important Clue
One of the most intriguing aspects of the painting is its treatment of the flags.
A Red Ensign appears at the stern and a Union Flag at the masthead. More significant for our research is the large red house flag.
Viewed from the side represented in the painting, its lettering appears reversed but seems consistent with "GW&Co".
This strongly suggests G. Windram & Co. of Liverpool.
If that identification is correct, the artist has represented Wiscombe Park in her earlier Windram-associated appearance, before the vessel changed ownership in 1911.
This does not necessarily mean that the canvas itself was painted before 1911. Maritime painters could work from photographs or earlier visual material, allowing an earlier configuration of a vessel to be reproduced later.
The Reginald Arthur Borstel Connection
Our most important art-historical discovery concerns Reginald Arthur Borstel.
Born in Sydney in 1875, Borstel became a specialist painter of identifiable commercial sailing ships and is associated with the Australian tradition of documentary maritime portraiture.
His recorded subjects include John Ena, West Lothian, Port Jackson, Speedonia and numerous other working sailing vessels.
Crucially, a separate portrait of Wiscombe Park is recorded under Borstel's name and dated 1917.
It is not the painting discussed here. The known work differs in composition and dimensions, and its existence cannot authenticate the present unsigned canvas.
What it does establish is highly relevant: Wiscombe Park herself was a documented Borstel subject.
That provides considerably more meaningful comparative evidence than a general stylistic resemblance to Borstel's other marine paintings.
Why Circa 1910-1917?
We currently consider circa 1910-1917 the most appropriate cautious working date.
The apparent G. Windram & Co. house flag may preserve the vessel's appearance before 1911.
Against this, the separate documented Borstel Wiscombe Park is dated 1917, and the artist's relationship with maritime photography provides a plausible mechanism through which an earlier appearance of the ship could have been painted subsequently.
The date range therefore acknowledges both strands of evidence without claiming greater precision than the surviving material supports.
Wiscombe Park and Australia
Australia forms an important part of the vessel's history.
Contemporary records document Australian-bound activity during the 1910s, and Wiscombe Park is recorded in Australian waters in 1917.
The coincidence with the date of the separately documented Borstel portrait is particularly interesting given Borstel's Australian maritime practice.
It does not prove authorship of the present painting, but it strengthens the historical context surrounding the proposed attribution.
From British to French and German Ownership
Wiscombe Park's career continued long after her original British ownership.
In 1911 she passed to Chadwick, Wainwright & Co. of Liverpool.
In 1919 she entered French ownership and was renamed Edouard Bureau.
She subsequently entered German ownership during the 1920s and was adapted for sail-training service.
Few paintings of sailing ships allow the viewer to follow the depicted vessel through such a long and varied documented working life.
The Final Voyage from Port Pirie
The last chapter of Wiscombe Park's career began in Australia.
In 1927 the veteran vessel departed Port Pirie, South Australia, carrying wheat towards Europe.
She encountered severe conditions around Cape Horn before eventually reaching Falmouth following a prolonged passage.
Ordered onward towards Belfast, she subsequently grounded on Twin Rocks in the Irish Sea.
Although the ship was refloated, the cost of repair was considered uneconomic. After approximately thirty-five years of ocean-going service, the former Wiscombe Park was broken up.
Wiscombe Park in Maritime Art
Borstel was not the only artist fascinated by this vessel.
British marine painter Herbert Barnard John Everett encountered Wiscombe Park at Ipswich in 1921.
Everett went aboard the vessel and made sketches of her. Royal Museums Greenwich now preserves several of his works relating directly to Wiscombe Park, including A Deck Scene on the 'Wiscombe Park'.
The survival of works associated with both Borstel and Everett makes Wiscombe Park an unusually well documented commercial sailing vessel within maritime art.
The Painting Today
The present canvas measures approximately 59 x 90 cm and is housed within a later Larson-Juhl moulded gilt frame, giving overall dimensions of approximately 74.5 x 105.5 cm.
It survives in historic condition, displaying extensive craquelure, surface wear and evidence of previous repairs and restoration consistent with its age and history.
The work remains unsigned.
Our attribution to Reginald Arthur Borstel and circa 1910-1917 dating are therefore presented as considered professional research opinions rather than definitive authentication.
Research remains ongoing, particularly into the house flag and the possibility that a historic photographic source corresponding closely to this composition may survive.
Selected Research Sources
Royal Museums Greenwich / National Maritime Museum
Design & Art Australia Online
Naval Historical Society of Australia
Neville Pamment, Reginald Arthur Henry Borstel (1875-1922): An Australian Pierhead Painter, The Great Circle, 2018
Daina Fletcher, Australian maritime-art and photography research
NSW Shipping Master's Office / Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters
Falkland Islands National Archives
Christie's and Bonhams documented Borstel comparatives
Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales
John Blumer & Co. / Sunderland shipbuilding research
David Duggleby Auctioneers & Valuers
Discover the Artwork
View the complete catalogue entry, additional photographs and availability for the Wiscombe Park marine painting:
