Thomas DUTTON

The SIBELLA, 721 TONS

By Thomas Goldsworth Dutton after his own drawings, produced by Day and Haghe and printed by William Foster in London circa 1850.

Lithograph with hand colour, printed area 13½ x 17 inches. Framed

The Sibella was one of the ships that travelled between England and Australia during the middle years of Queen Victoria’s reign. There is a full passenger list for a voyage that left Plymouth on 12th December 1851 and arrived in Adelaide on 16th March 1852. At this time, in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, many workers were leaving England for the chance of a better life in Australia.

Thomas Dutton was an eminent draughtsman and lithographer of ships, yachts and maritime subjects after both his own designs and those of his contemporaries. He was based in London and worked for the lithographic publishing firm of William Day whose business continued after his death in 1845 under the name, Day and Son. These printing presses produced some of the most memorable lithographs from the mid Victorian period and the majority of Dutton’s output. The lithographs were often produced using a tint stone and were offered for sale either with or without colour. Dutton’s accomplished renderings of yachts, steamships, clippers and naval engagements have come to epitomise the spirit of maritime excitement and adventure that dominated the Victorian age. This was a period when Britannia ruled the waves and British supremacy at sea was a cause for great pride.
Dutton was widely acclaimed in his lifetime and held regular exhibitions of his work in London. He died in 1891 having lived through one of the most exciting and expansive periods of British colonial history. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich owns an almost complete collection of his lithographs.

£1,650
Framed