🔥 Antique Old Pacific Northwest Haida Native Seascape Oil Painting, Hamilton 47

Description: This is a fascinating and vibrant Antique Old Pacific Northwest Haida Tlingit Native Seascape Oil Painting on canvas, depicting an exploration expedition of Pacific Northwest First Nation sailors in traditional canoes with sails, crossing frigid waters. In the distance, a majestic mountain vista of tall, snowcapped peaks can be seen. Titled: "First Cruise to Malibu" in the lower left corner. This title suggests that the Haida or Tlingit sailed as far south as Malibu, California at some time in the historical past. The Chumash tribe is also known for having sailed to Malibu, where they settled for generations. I am unsure what time period this event in the painting is supposed to have taken place. Signed and dated: "Thos. F. Hamilton '47" in the lower right corner. I could not find any information on this artist, but perhaps you know more about him or his work? Approximately 36 x 46 inches. Good condition for decades of age and storage, with some moderate edge wear, light paint loss, and one tear to the canvas at the upper left edge (please see photos.) Due to the large size of this piece, S&H costs will be unavoidably high. However, Free Local Pickup from Los Angeles County, Calfiornia is also an option. Acquired in Pasadena, California. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! About Pacific Northwest Canoes: Pacific Northwest canoes are both a sophisticated art form and a symbol of cultural identity, reflecting local needs, sea conditions, and skills. Although there are a variety of canoe types depending on tribal formats and traditions, canoes are one of the three major forms of monumental art among Northwest Coast First Nations, along with plank houses and totem poles. However, the canoe is the single most important physical manifestation of Northwest Coast culture. They go back to the Great Flood myth and exist at the nexus between technology and living beings. They are spiritual objects which garner great respect. The hulls are constructed of once-living trees that survived centuries and sustained the lives of innumerable birds, insects, mammals and other plants. Prior to European contact, and with painstaking precision, these trees were felled (or even occasionally harvested from the forest floor or beaches) and transformed into vessels, without drawings, calculations, or engineering as we know them today. Journeymen carvers and now-forgotten artists formed the logs into mighty sea craft.Blessed at each step of their transformation and hardened by the forces of fire and water, these canoes come to represent whole clans and communities. The canoe’s technology is older than time, but still perfectly fitting for people seeking to explore and know the ocean. The Northwest Coast canoe provides the maximum amount of boat for the minimum amount of material, and represents unity and teamwork, as well as strength and health. Canoes became a valuable trade item between nations in the past, this is especially true for the Haida, Tlingit and Nuu-Chah-Nulth, and they are still capable of bringing wealth and prestige to a community and to a people. The reports of sails on Northwest Coast canoes has been controversial. With an ethnocentric assumption that the Indian nations of the Northwest Coast were isolated and “primitive”, and ignoring oral traditions of trade with distant lands (including Hawaii) and trade items showing contact with Asia, most non-Indian scholars have steadfastly reported that the use of sails was introduced by the European explorers. In 1868 Gilbert Sproat explained the sail this way:“The sail-of which it is supposed, but rather vaguely, that they got the idea from Meares some eighty years ago-is a square mat tied at the top to a small stick or yard crossing a mast placed close to the bow.”

Price: 2750 USD

Location: Orange, California

End Time: 2025-01-25T20:57:56.000Z

Shipping Cost: 45 USD