This attractive portrait features the five-masted schooner ELINOR H. at full sail in an active sea. The ship has crisp lines and a sharp sense of detail, likely because it was painted from either direct observation or from a photograph of the actual vessel. We know this because of the inscription lower left, Laidlaw and Harris, Sydney.
Laidlaw and Harris was a photography firm and one of two that Borstel was associated with during his lifetime. In order to provide portraits of ships to her crew, the company would hire an artist to paint a portrait of a visiting ship and then photograph the portrait and sell copies to her crew. Some of Laidlaw and Harris' portraits of these paintings survive as do many paintings by Borstel also marked Laidlaw and Harris. Though this work is unsigned, between these markings and the style of the piece, particularly in the waves of the sea, it's clearly a work by Borstel.
The ELINOR H. came out of the Martinolich Yard in Dockton, Washinton in 1920. There were only 75 five-masted schooners ever made, most between 1881 -1922, so the ELINOR H. was among the last. These were impressively large ships- ELINOR H. was 1569 tons, 233 feet in length, 45 beam and and 18 foot depth. From what records are available it appears that she often sailed between Australia and the US, so it's likely on one of those voyages that she made port in Australia and was captured in this portrait.
The ELINOR H. did not have a long life at sea. In May of 1923 several newspapers around the world reported that the ELINOR H. was feared lost in a typhoon. Having sailed from Newcastle, Australia with a load of coal bound for Hawaii she was 90 days out with no word. The ship was considered lost, and was not heard from again.
Housed in a fine quality Art Deco solid birds eye maple frame.
