If you have friends who are not only sea lovers but also art lovers, it is always an incredible idea to give them a painting of a ship, the ocean, or the seaside as a gift. The people you’re presenting the artwork to will enjoy having it in their homes. In addition, your gifts will become conversation pieces in your friends’ homes as it is accepted between art lovers that ocean paintings are a genre evoking strong emotions.
If you know your friends well, you will be able to determine what specific type of ocean scene painting will be the best gift for them. There are ocean lovers who would like any landscape with the ocean depicted. Some might be grateful if they receive marine artwork, while others would appreciate maritime artwork as a gift.
To help you decide on the right gifts for your friends, we’ll briefly discuss these different types and themes used by painters and look at some examples of typical and well-known sea-related artworks that would make excellent gifts.
Maritime Artworks
Let’s start with the main categories of paintings you will have to choose from for your sea lover friends. There are two distinct genres of ocean paintings, namely maritime art and marine art. Both these two genres draw their inspiration from the ocean.
Maritime art depicts paintings of ships at sea. Human involvement usually forms an integral part of a maritime painting. When there are no human figures in the painting, human involvement is implicated as the shipbuilders.
Today, wonderful paintings of ships at sea are still created by artists, but the trend’s peak has been from the 17th to 19th centuries. In most portfolios of the well-known masters of that time, you’ll find a famous ship painting showing ships on sea and rivers.
Marine Paintings
Marine art includes famous ocean paintings which are pure sea scenes and usually don’t include any human activity or another human element. The term “marine art” is used to differentiate between paintings of “pure” beach scenes on the one hand and landscapes where the sea forms part of the whole picture on the other hand. In landscapes, the ocean is mainly used as background.
Marine art also includes pure sea scenes and doesn’t have to include any human activity or another human element. A good example is “Emerald Sea” by Albert Bierstadt.
Since the Romantic art period in the middle of the 18th century, marine art has come to the forefront, and paintings with no vessels or humans have become standard for the first time.
Beautiful Paintings of Ships at Sea – Maritime Art
Two famous boat paintings of ships at sea, which are possible artworks you can consider as gifts, are Edward Moran’s “Ship at Sea, Sunset” and “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emanuel Leutze.
If some of your friends are ship lovers who appreciate ships from any historical period, the Edward Moran painting “Ship at Sea, Sunset” will be the ideal gift. In this painting, human involvement is only implicated as the shipbuilders.
For ship lovers interested in history, the famous 1851-painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emanuel Leutze might be the right gift. The painting commemorates General George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River with the Continental Army during the night of 25 December 1776, during the American Revolutionary War.
Sea Painting with a Human Depicted as “Center Piece”
If your friends upheld the principle that virtue is moral excellence, you could consider the sea painting “Miranda – The Tempest” by John William Waterhouse as a gift.
This painting, created in 1916, depicts a woman sitting on a rock, staring at the stormy sea. She forms a focal point in the painting. The artwork is based on the story of Miranda from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” And the artist has interpreted her as a living representation of female virtue.
Your friend will be able to associate with this painting and will be grateful every time the painting is looked at and admired.
Landscape, Sea, and “Story-telling” Paintings
For a person who is a sea lover and also values beautiful landscapes, a painting with both the sea and beautiful flowers and other vegetation would be an ideal gift. A painting to consider as a gift for your friend might be “Celia Thaxter’s Garden, Isles of Shoals”, Maine by Frederick Childe Hassam. The painting beautifully depicts flowers and other plants in the foreground with the sea as the background.
A painting like Monet’s “Terrace at the Seaside, Sante-Adresse” tells a story about people in a relaxed mood holidaying at the seaside. If you give this to your friend as a gift, they will always look at the artwork and remember fun days experienced at the seashore.
Interestingly, this painting combines the sea, boats, beautiful vegetation on the shore, and humans all in one picture.
Where to Get Famous Ocean Paintings to Use as Gifts?
If you’ve identified the painting you want to give to your friend as a gift and then realize that it is unavailable due to its being in a permanent exhibition or owned by a collector, you could consider a reproduction. Fortunately, excellent legal reproductions of ship oil paintings and other sea-related paintings are available at affordable prices. In addition, it is possible to buy famous ocean paintings as reproductions online. Do some research on well-established online gallery sites like 1st art Gallery and you’ll find the painting reproductions you want to give as a gift.
Most online galleries can also deliver the reproduced artwork directly at your friend’s address and, if it is a significant work, even assist with hanging it.
The Bottom Line
If your friends are sea lovers and art lovers, the best gifts you can give them are an excellent reproduction of famous maritime ocean paintings, paintings of ships at sea, or marine paintings, including pure ocean scenes without any human involvement. And they will absolutely love it!
