Terms and conditions of use
The ship's deck
(c. 1860)
Medium
oil on canvas on wood panel
Measurements
56.4 × 47.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1926
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
This dramatic work from the beginning of Manet’s career belongs to a minor theme that he returned to many times throughout his life: imagery of the sea and ships. In 1848 Manet failed the entrance exam for the French naval officers’ school but bought his own passage as a junior helmsman on Le Havre et Guadaloupe, a three-masted ship headed for Rio de Janeiro. Manet’s interest here is in the ship itself as the vehicle for his immersion in nature. Seen from the viewpoint of a helmsman, the plunging angles and stark lighting convey the painter’s enthusiasm for the sea.
Frame: recycled, 2010, mid nineteenth-century French frame
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed (diagonally) in black paint (in a later hand) l.r.: Manet
Accession Number
2046-3
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Marines and Seascapes
Subjects (specific)
decks (watercraft components) masts nautical rigging sailing vessels ships spars (watercraft components)
Provenance
With Quentin (possibly a dealer), Paris; collection of John James Cowan
(1846–1936), Wester Lea, Murrayfield, Edinburgh, until 1926; Cowan sale, Christie's, London, 2 July 1926, no. 13; from where purchased, on the advice of Frank Rinder, for the Felton Bequest, 1926.
Exhibited Loan Exhibition of Pictures Mainly by Deceased Artists of the British and French and Dutch Schools, Museum and Art Gallery Kircaldy, London, 1925, no. 26.
Frame
Recycled, 2010, mid-19th century French frame
Frame
The reframing of The ship’s deck (c.1860) followed on from the reframing work on The House at Rueil.
The former framing was Louis XV revival, the default framing of many French paintings of the second half of the C19th as they changed hands.
The proposal to reframe this painting and The Melon arose in April 2008.
The reframing is based on images of Manets paintings in their frames published in MANET RACONTÉ PAR LUI-MÊME, 1926, the posthumous Manet retrospective of 1884.
Original nineteenth century French frames that would suit both this picture and The Melon, were on offer from London.
For The ship’s deck two options of the classical revival form were offered, one with acanthus leaves in the corners.
The plainer option was preferred and the frame purchased in January 2010.
The frame arrived in March 2010 and was fitted to the painting.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2007.
Frame Details
Framemaker
Unknown - 19th century
Date
mid nineteenth century
Materials
wood, composition and gold leaf