WESLEY ELBRIDGE WEBBER (ME/MA, 1841-1914)

Shipwreck Survivors on a Raft, a monumental oil on canvas depicting a desperate group of eight men, three women, three children and a dog sighting a rescue ship on the horizon beneath a delivering angel descending from the City of Heaven, in a molded gold gesso frame, SS: 30" X 50", OS: 38" X 58". Very good condition, one small retouched area in sky above raft.Webber was born in Gardiner, Maine. Self-taught, he apprenticed himself to a sign painter in Boston from 1858 until the war broke out in 1861. He joined up with Co B of the Sixteenth Maine Volunteer Infantry and witnessed Lee’s surrender. As the only artist present he filled a notebook with sketches which were later reproduced in Harper’s Weekly. Subsequent printings from his other drawings funded his move to New York City. He also had a studio in his hometown in Maine. Annual trips were made into the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. At the center of the 'Realist' movement, populated mostly by veterans, Webber's studio became the social club, which probably caused the dissipation that led to his death. Provenance: From Private Collection, Harpswell, ME.