Blue Sail Fleet Returns
Object Details
- Luce Center Label
- Earl Cunningham painted more than four hundred images of the sea, based on his memories of voyages up and down the East Coast. Blue Sail Fleet Returns does not show an actual location, but rather a combination of real and imaginary elements. He created a fantasy world with purple water, orange trees, and birds as large as a house, and may have included himself as one of the tiny fishermen on the pier. The sea represented freedom to Cunningham, and one of his dreams was to own a houseboat so he could live permanently on the water ("Earl Cunningham's American Eden," Gary Schwan, The Palm Beach Post, 1994, Chuck and Jan Rosenak research material, 1990-1999, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution).
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Mennello
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Date
- after 1949
- Object number
- 1988.64
- Artist
- Earl Cunningham, born Edgecomb, ME 1893-died St. Augustine, FL 1977
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Painting
- Folk Art
- Medium
- oil on fiberboard
- Dimensions
- 16 1/2 x 36 1/4 in. (41.8 x 92.1 cm)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- On View
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor, 23B
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor
- Topic
- Architecture\boat\sailing ship
- Animal\bird
- Waterscape\harbor
- Waterscape\time\sunset
- Record ID
- saam_1988.64
