|
|
|
| Study for “The Return of the Mayflower” |
Bernard Finegan Gribble
(1873-1962) |
|
Acquisition Number: 2016-11-1
Medium: Watercolor
Status: Reproduction Available - Click Here
By the end of 1916, German U-boats and submerged mines had put a crippling noose around the British Isles and strained the ability of the Royal Navy to protect incoming people and supplies. A month after the United States’ declaration of war against Germany, six destroyers of Destroyer Squadron 8 arrived off Queenstown, Ireland, on 4 May 1917. They went into service immediately alongside British ships. In commemoration of their arrival, Bernard F. Gribble created a romanticized version of the scene for a private patron. Though his final painting showed a line of destroyers stretching to the horizon, this study focuses on a scene where only one destroyer has rounded the point and is in view. The painting for which this is a study acquired its name after the ranking U.S. admiral in London, William S. Sims, saw Gribble’s first version in an exhibition and commissioned the artist for a similar painting, which he brought back to the Navy Department. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt titled it “The Return of the Mayflower” in an allusion to the descendants of English colonists returning to their ancestral homeland.
Courtesy of Navy Art Collection, Naval History and Heritage Command
|
|
