A Danish Timber Bark Getting Under Way

Samuel Scott's A Danish Timber Bark Getting Under Way of 1736 depicts the distinctive timber-carrying vessels that transported Baltic wood into the Thames — the raw material of British shipbuilding — with the precise marine observation that made Scott the foremost British marine painter before the emergence of Turner. Scott had trained in the tradition of the van de Veldes and applied their Dutch marine exactitude to English subjects, developing a style that combined technical accuracy about rigging and hull forms with atmospheric sensitivity to Thames-side light and weather.

Careful attention to nautical detail in the rigging and hull shows Scott's deep knowledge of ship construction. The overcast sky is rendered in subtle gradations of grey that capture the characteristic light of the Thames estuary.