This late 19th-century oil painting by Belgian artist Henry Loos (fl. 1870-1894) depicts a full-rigged three-masted British ship before a distant port.Given the thriving nature of maritime trade during the latter part of the 19th century, each major continental port developed a flourishing art industry. British sailors, for example, could bring back portraits of their ships from over a dozen destinations. Today, these fascinating mementos of successful voyages serve not only as decoration but also as a record of the ship in question.Antwerp was one of the busier ports and produced several ship painters of distinction. One of the foremost was Petrus Cornelius Weyts (1799-1855), whose works often surface in Britain. He was a master of reverse glass painting, the skill of depicting a subject, flipped, onto glass using various mediums. The technique was popular in Antwerp and resulted in a crisp and vivid style, often enhanced with strong colouring. As a result, the following gener...