Cheshire Antiques Consultant Ltd has dated this Maritime Ship Oil Painting to the 1960s.
Signed at the bottom by the known marine British artist William Eric Thorp.
Oil on canvas set in a fine traditional gilt frame.
Circa mid 20th century.
Good proportion sized frame being 58 cm wide and 48 cm high.
Title “The Achille Lauro, 23,629 Tons, Ex Willem Ruys” by William Eric Thorp.
In our opinion this is one of his very fine works.
Your focus is first drawn to the small sailing yacht who is sailing away in the opposite direction, on the other flank a smaller Italian classic boat sailing parallel with the Lauro. Then the large delightful MS Achille Lauro ship who is sailing towards the left in side profile. You can view the iconic blue hue colour of the hull & opaque turquoise twin funnels which have a white star in each. Lifeboats along the side also the name of the ship shown by the stern area. Sailing along relative choppy seas above with light blue sky with some cloud cover.
Biography of the artist William Eric Thorp a known British artist also a designer and model maker like his father, he was born in London in the year 1901. It was known that his dad who was John Thorp was an architect and also a model-maker. Thorp studied at the City of London School, & the known Herbert Dicksee was drawing master also at the Royal Academy Schools. Thorp love the sea and he was primarily a marine artist, he was made a member of PS in 1952 and RSMA in 1958, also being a member of Wapping Group, Langham and London Sketch Clubs and Chelsea Arts Club.
He exhibited at the RA & the Paris Salon. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich also the Guildhall Art Gallery do hold examples of his paintings. In his later live he lived in a nursing home, having settled in Nottingham, and did not work. He died in the late 20th century 1993. His paintings have sold at auction houses around around the world the current highest sold price was for $3895 US dollars which was for the Royal Yacht Britannia.
History of the ship MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship based in Naples, Italy. It was built between 1939 and 1947 as the ocean liner Willem Ruys for Royal Rotterdam Lloyd. In 1965 Achille Lauro bought the ship, had it converted into a cruise ship, and renamed it after himself. In 1985 it was hijacked by members of the Palestine Liberation Front. The ship was also involved in two serious collisions: in 1953 with the Oranje, and in 1975 with the cargo ship Youseff. It also suffered four onboard fires or explosions: in 1965, 1972, 1981, and 1994. In the last of these, in 1994, the ship caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean off Somalia.
Ordered in 1938 to replace the aging ships on the Dutch East Indies route, she was laid down in 1939 at Koninklijke Maatschappij 'De Schelde'. Scheepswerf en Machinefabriek in Vlissingen, Netherlands, for Rotterdamsche Lloyd (now part of Nedlloyd). Interrupted by World War II and two bombing raids, the ship was finally launched in July 1946, as Willem Ruys. The ship was named after the grandson of the founder of Rotterdamsche Lloyd, whom the Germans had taken hostage and shot during the war. Willem Ruys was completed in late 1947. At that time, the Rotterdamsche Lloyd had been granted a royal prefix in honour of its services during the war. Willem Ruys was 192 metres (630 ft) in length, 25 metres (82 ft) in beam, had a draught of 8.9 metres (29.2 ft), and measured 21,119 gross register tons. Eight Sulzer engines drove two propellers. She could accommodate 900 passengers. She featured a superstructure very different from other liners of that era; Willem Ruys pioneered low-slung aluminium lifeboats, within the upper-works' flanks.
The next ship to adopt this a
Cheshire Antiques Consultant Ltd has dated this Maritime Ship Oil Painting to the 1960s.
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Oil Painting MS Achille Lauro Ship By William Eric Thorp
