Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD

Majestic Victorian Maritime Oil Painting Potosi Navigating Drake's Passage Masterpiece

£5,000.00

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🌊⚓ Majestic Marine Oil Painting – “Potosi Navigating Drake’s Passage” 🚢🌪️

Experience the drama and majesty of one of the most formidable sailing ships in maritime history with this large, breathtaking Victorian seascape oil painting, titled:

“Steel Hull Barque 5 Masted Ship Potosi Navigating Drake’s Passage”

Painted circa 1900, this dynamic marine artwork captures the great nitrate clipper Potosi forging ahead through the dangerous Drake Passage, with the infamous Cape Horn Lighthouse faintly visible to starboard. The vessel’s five mighty masts tower above the storm-tossed sea, pushing forward into the wind, symbolizing resilience and engineering triumph at the edge of the world.

🚢 Subject Matter – The Legendary Ship ‘Potosi’

Commissioned by the F. Laeisz shipping line and built in 1895 by Joh. C. Tecklenborg in Germany, Potosi was one of the most advanced nitrate carriers of its time. Rigged as a five-masted steel barque, she was specifically engineered to endure the brutal conditions of Cape Horn, navigating between Germany and South America to carry guano for fertilizers and explosives.

Designer: Dr. Georg Wilhelm Claussen
Tonnage: 4,027 GRT | Displacement: 8,350 tons
Ship size: 436 ft long × 49.7 ft beam × 210 ft mast height
Built at: Yard No. 133, Geestemünde, Germany
Role: “Nitrate Clipper” in the Flying P-Line, famed for performance and endurance
Named after Potosí, the highest city in the world, in keeping with Laeisz’s “P” ship tradition

As Robert Carter wrote, the Flying P-Line was "without doubt, the most successful fleet of sail-driven ships ever assembled under one flag."

🎨 Artistic Composition – Brushwork & Atmosphere

The painting is executed in oil on canvas, with a powerful and atmospheric style. The artist has employed expressive brushwork to sculpt the angry, foam-tipped waves in the foreground, while dramatic cloud forms swirl across a violet and charcoal sky. The color palette is rich in steel greys, stormy mauves, muted pinks, and marine blues — highlighting the intensity of nature’s fury.

The Potosi dominates the canvas in profile, its sails taut and partially furled.
A steamship emerges in the distance to port, and another sailing ship appears near the Cape Horn Lighthouse on the far horizon, creating a sense of vastness and danger.

🕰️ Age & Medium

Circa 1900, early 20th century
Medium: Oil on canvas

🖼️ Original Gilt Frame

This painting is beautifully preserved in its original ornate decorative gilt frame, lending it the gravitas of a true collector’s piece.

Frame Dimensions (cm):
- Height: 79.5 cm
- Width: 110 cm
- Depth: 4.5 cm

✍️ The Artist – Job

Signed in the lower corner by British artist Job, whose marine works are known for their technical accuracy and emotive realism. Though little is known about Job’s personal biography, his surviving works, particularly those featuring iconic ships and stormy seascapes, are highly regarded among collectors of Victorian and Edwardian nautical art.

📜 Provenance & Certificate of Authenticity

From a private Southern Shire estate
Labels verso: High-end Southern Shire Auction House
Documented by Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD
Exhibited in a museum setting
✅ Certificate of Authenticity (COA) included

🧾 Condition Report

Painting Surface: Good overall condition with light craquelure and minor foxing, commensurate with its age
Canvas: Stable and clean
Frame: Presents well with general wear, including scuffs, chips, losses, and small touch-ups, especially to corners

🌍 Worldwide Shipping Available

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🖼️ Available exclusively through Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD.