Emil Carlsen : THE LIFEBOAT, 1884.

ECA record control number: 39295

Archives of American Art #: [none]

Record level: Item

Record type: Movable work

Work title: The lifeboat  [ECA assigned title]

Alternate work titles:
2025 The lifeboat  [ECA assigned title]
2025 Whaling under moonlight  [auction title]

Work date: 1884  [from front of canvas]

Work creator: Emil Carlsen [1848-1932]

Work medium: Oil on canvas
Work dimensions: 29 x 51 inches  [unframed]

Inscribed / signed front:
Location: At lower right.
Dated: Yes.
Text: ‘S. Emile. Carlsen / 1884′.

Verso:
Marking type:
Location:
Text: ‘ ‘.

ECA category: Waterscape
ECA sub-category: Ships

Archives of American Art subjects:
Architecture
Architecture — Boat
Architecture — Boat — Rowboat
Waterscape
Waterscape — Boat
Waterscape — Coast
Waterscape — Sea
Waterscape — Weather
Waterscape — Weather— Cloud
Waterscape — Weather — Storm

Description of work:

Provenance / ownership:
2025 Private collection of [withheld], OR ;
2025 ( Goodwill Industries of Orange County, CA / Goodwill Industries of Columbia Willamette, GA [via online] ) ;

Exhibition history:
– 2025 Goodwill Industries of Orange County, CA / Goodwill Industries of Columbia Willamette, GA [via online].

References / citations:

Related works:

ECA notes:
The painting appears to retain its original stretchers. Emil Carlsen almost always made his own stretchers, typically using flat butt joints rather than 45-degree mitered corners. While this construction method is characteristic of his practice, it also created structural limitations: because butt-joined stretchers cannot be expanded, canvases frequently developed buckling or surface wrinkles over time. The presence of these original stretchers is an important indicator of period authenticity.

Carlsen was fundamentally a studio painter. He worked from drawings and studies rather than completing finished paintings in situ. In this case, the ship appears to derive from the same base drawing used in Seascape with ship, 1881 (https://emilcarlsen.org/emil-carlsen-seascape-with-ship-1881)

Notably, the drawing appears reversed, and the sails in this version are only partially articulated. This corresponds to a narrative shift: here the ship is stationary rather than underway, as in the 1881 painting. When the ship from the 1881 work is digitally overlaid onto this composition, the match is remarkably close.

The signature is consistent with Carlsen’s known habits during this period. He avoided using his given name, Søren, and at this date typically signed works “S. Emile Carlsen,” often including periods between each element. The signature here—“S. Emile. Carlsen. / 1884”—is executed with a brush rather than the thin liner brush he adopted later in life. It closely resembles the signature found on Fisherman and boy, 1876 (https://emilcarlsen.org/emil-carlsen-fisherman-and-boy-1876-2)

The title assigned by the auction house appears to be incorrect. Although the presence of a harpoon at the bow may suggest nocturnal whaling, no whales are depicted. Instead, the scene reads as a lifeboat carrying crew members fleeing a ship burning in the background. The composition aligns more closely with a Romantic depiction of a whaler’s destruction rather than an active hunt. The imagery may loosely reference the famous 1820 whaling disaster that later inspired Moby-Dick. The amphora-like vessels shown on the lifeboat would not have been used during that historical period, as such forms belong to Greek and Roman antiquity; however, Romantic painters frequently employed these shapes symbolically to represent large containers of oil. A maritime painting acquired by the Maritime Museum in Massachusetts in 1884 (see attached) may have served as visual inspiration.

The scale of the painting is also significant. Carlsen painted on larger canvases more frequently when he was younger, gradually shifting to smaller formats as he aged and devoted more time to drafting and careful execution. The vessel depicted appears to be a brig—a two-masted, square-rigged sailing ship widely used in the 18th and 19th centuries—appropriate to the historical context of Boston Harbor and its merchant and whaling activity. While no definitive exhibition listing has yet been identified, the scale suggests the work may have been intended for public display or competition. Carlsen was 36 years old in 1884, teaching near Boston, and likely painted this work in a Gloucester studio using a drawing made several years earlier. Given the generic nature of period exhibition titles (“Seascape,” “Marine,” etc.), it is possible the painting was exhibited in 1884 or 1885, though definitive documentation remains elusive.

Price history:
2025 – [unknown] [auction];

Document information

Document permalink:
https://emilcarlsen.org/work/?p=39295

Digital-born document number:
ECA.2025.39295

Digital document provenance:
Original compiled and researched document by the Emil Carlsen Archives, 266 West 21st Street, Suite 4E, New York, NY 10011.

Document license:
Creative Commons Corporation  shareAlike (sa) license.  Some of the information contained within this document may hold further publication restrictions depending on final use.  It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine.

Image license:
The author of this artwork died more than 70 years ago. According to U.S. Copyright Law, copyright expires 70 years after the author’s death. In other countries, legislation may differ.

Record birth date:

[lmt-post-modified-info]