Mystic Seaport recently published a 2nd edition of Rudolph J. Schaefer's comprehensive book, J. E. Buttersworth: 19th-Century Marine Painter. With the advice of Janet Schaefer, the new volume includes the details of Buttersworth's life, full-color reproductions of more than 150 works, and a listing of nearly 1,200 known Buttersworth paintings.The son of a British marine painter, James E. Buttersworth (1817-1894) was among the most prolific marine artists of the nineteenth century. His clipper ship views many of which were published as popular lithographs by N. Currier and his America's Cup race paintings are widely respected for their combination of artistic and documentary qualities.
Like his contemporary "luminist" and Hudson River School artists, Buttersworth excelled in the dramatic renderings of sea and sky, elevating the precisely detailed renderings of ships beyond document to art. The completely revised image section, with new or augmented captions, contains more than 200 examples of Buttersworth's work illustrated in full color, more than half of which were not included in the first edition.