Viewed by many as America’s finest painter of the sailing vessel, Buttersworth is particularly noted for his yacht racing scenes. His ability to render maritime action in exacting detail led to frequent commissions from yacht owners of his day who sought to immortalize their sporting triumphs on canvas. The present work depicts two sloops challenging each other for the lead on the upwind leg of a race in what is almost certainly New York Harbor, and demonstrates the delicate touch and intrinsic drama that characterizes Buttersworth’s best work.

His yachts have a fragile power and grace of movement at high speed. Buttersworth captured the breathtaking performance of these small craft, the skill and aggressiveness of their hands, the excitement and drama of the race, and the dreams and disappointments of the winners and losers [Richard B. Grassby, Ship, Sea & Sky: The Marine Art of James Edward Buttersworth (New York: Rizzoli, 1994), p. 95].

Yacht racing was approaching its zenith when the present work was painted. Curtailed during the Civil War, the well-liked sport thrived again soon after the conflict ended. It attracted a socially and financially prominent group of participants, and even though it was beyond the financial wherewithal of most of its audience, became a closely followed spectator sport and received substantial press coverage. In 1866, the New York Yacht Club sponsored the first transatlantic race, and this event, along with Britain’s challenge to the America’s Cup in 1870, catapulted sailing’s popularity to unprecedented heights. It remained a spectator favorite until it was supplanted by the rise of baseball and other sports in the late nineteenth century [Joseph S. Lieber in Kenneth T. Jackson, ed., The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven: Yale University Press; New York: New-York Historical Society, 1995), p. 1032].

The son of a noted marine painter, the English-born Buttersworth settled in West Hoboken, New Jersey during the 1850s, a location that offered him unrestricted access to the varied maritime activity in New York harbor. Over the 60 years he painted, Buttersworth witnessed perhaps the most significant developments in nautical history, and remained a careful student of vessels, weather, and seamanship over the course of his career. Not only did he pay meticulous attention to details of the rigging, sails, and hulls of the watercraft he painted, but he also fully understood the subtleties of how they performed under various sea and weather conditions, lending his works a distinct sense of authority and authenticity.

Because Buttersworth typically painted from a small craft on the water rather than from a fixed point on shore, it is often difficult to determine the exact settings depicted in his works. Misidentifications of locations (as well as specific boats) are common. Although a painting with similar background detail to the present work carried the title Baltimore Harbor, research suggests that this is not likely the location of Yachts Racing. Buttersworth traveled very little, and no evidence has come to light that he ever visited Baltimore. In cases where the artist painted scenes of places he had not been (e.g., Nassau, Boston), he relied on views from popular prints circulating at the time. A search of over 200 historical prints of Baltimore found nothing resembling the view in the present work, nor did any recorded images of Fort McHenry look anything like what is depicted on the landmass at left of the present work. Finally, logic suggests that Baltimore -- the third-most populous city in the United States in 1860 – would have possessed a far more built-up shoreline than that shown in the present work.

Although it is impossible to say with certainty, the setting for the present work is likely The Narrows, the passage between New York’s Upper and Lower Bays. This channel, with Staten Island on the western shore and Brooklyn on the eastern shore, is spanned by the present-day Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Sitting at a strategic point overlooking the entrance to New York Harbor, The Narrows had long been the site of military encampments, with Fort Wadsworth on the Staten Island side, and Fort Hamilton on the Brooklyn side. Repeatedly used, refurbished, and reused in a series of wars, the number, form and layout of buildings at these sites changed -- sometimes drastically -- over the years, making it difficult to confirm their identity. However the hilly terrain and lack of extensive development of the landmass at left strongly suggests it may be Staten Island.

The present work exhibits the appealing palette of pale blues, grays and greens for which Buttersworth is known, and also highlights the artist’s tight and precise draftsmanship. In depicting a struggle for the lead between two magnificent wind-powered vessels, it possesses a story and a natural sense of action, making it far more than a simple portrait. Like many of the artist’s best works, Yachts Racing has, as scholar Richard Grassby has observed, “a low horizon and vantage point, a deep foreground of dark waves, parallel bands of light and shadow, and a spacious format” [Ship, Sea & Sky, pp. 35-37]. The picture also contains the artist’s signature seagulls with their black wing tips silhouetted against the water [Rudolph J. Schaefer, James Edward Buttersworth: 19th-Century Marine Painter, (Mystic, Connecticut: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1975), p. 23].

In addition to his prized yacht racing scenes, Buttersworth painted clippers, steamers, warships, and other marine craft, as well as a handful of landscapes and other subjects. Little is known about his life in England, but soon after Buttersworth emigrated to America, Currier & Ives arranged to publish some of his ship pictures, establishing his reputation in this country. Buttersworth traveled very little, and when the setting for one of his American works is a port other than New York, he often borrowed the details of landform and buildings from contemporary prints.

Buttersworth’s works are found in prestigious private collections and institutions including: The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Peabody Museum, Salem, MA; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT; Mariners Museum, Newport News, VA; Bath Marine Museum, Bath, ME; The New York Yacht Club, New York, NY; and the New York State Historical Association, New York, NY.