These superb Limited Edition Prints were created by a painter from the last generation of marine artists who could claim direct experience of sailing craft in day-to-day use for commerce.
By the time he died in 1984, John Chancellor had been painting full-time for only fourteen years. He had completed seventy oils and a similar number of watercolours and he is now recognised as a major marine artist. A seaman all his life, his paintings display his profound knowledge of the sea, a knowledge that few other marine painters have possessed.
Born in Portugal the son of a British Anglo-Latin Lawyer, John's earliest memory was seeing the 'Grand Bankers' setting off for the Newfoundland and Greenland fishing banks. He showed a remarkable talent for drawing as a child and spent a brief period in his adult life as a commercial artist.
When war broke out he joined the merchant navy and survived two torpedo attacks. Later, in peacetime, he served on deep sea tankers, was master of coastal barges, owned his own fishing craft and then developed an innovative hydrographical survey boat, 'Exact', converted from a fishing boat. In 1970, still chartering 'Exact' with himself as coxswain, John painted between commissions and it was during this time that he created the oil painting of the sail training ships Sir Winston Churchill and Malcolm Miller. The immediate interest in this painting persuaded him to give up the sea and develop his talents as a full-time painter.
Chancellor's paintings are widely acknowledged as being 'so detailed and accurate they are without doubt historic documents in their own right'. Chancellor balanced tight, detailed painting of vessels and free, impressionistic painting of the sea which he described as "a constantly moving subject with great distances and perspectives in play...the sea and sky are fundamental, the vessels being intruders in a natural setting largely unaltered by their presence".
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Throughout 1798 the little 20-gun La Prompte was stationed in the West Indies. On 21st September, when on passage to Bermuda for stores, she captured a French schooner, the Courier du Cap...On the evening of the 23rd, the wind began to freshen and by midnight was blowing a full gale...(click on the title or image for full details)
This beautiful Limited Edition Print shows the Tamar sailing barge Shamrock standing across Start Bay, Devon near the mouth of the River Dart...(click on the title or image for full details)
One of John Chancellor's earliest and most vivid memories was an incident when, as a five year old living on the north bank of the Tagus, he shared the excitement of the adults around him at the spectacle of a huge fleet of schooners and square riggers setting sail to fish the Grand Banks...(click on the title or image for full details)
Occasionally, while ships were peacefully at anchor in Torbay, Devon, the wind would come easterly and the scene would change dramatically....The frigate in the foreground on the port tack standing towards Berry Head is H.M.S. Endymion (Captain Charles Paget)...(click on the title or image for full details)
She bore up to the south'd dead before the wind, to hurl the whole weight of her broadside into Naiad's rigging in the hope of disabling her. This is the instant in the picture...H.M.S. Naiad's twenty-seven and a half hour pursuit of a French frigate...(click on the title or image for full details)
In 1796 the western approaches were effectively patrolled by two powerful frigate squadrons. One of these was commanded by Sir Edward Pellew in Indefatigable, which he had joined in 1794...(click on the title or image for full details)
