Charles Martin Powell, Shipping in Choppy Seas. 

A typical scene from this highly talented, self taught maritime artist Charles Martin Powell (1775–1824).

In the foreground is a Dutch craft, a wijdschip, leeboards up, the crew struggling for control in a strong wind with a choppy sea. Behind this is a British man of war flying nothing but it’s red ensign, sails tightly furled, decks busy with all crew. To the right of the scene is another man of war shown stern-on and running before the oncoming storm.

Painted on panel, within a fine and original gilt composition frame with the artist identified on a metal plaque pinned to the hollow.

Framed dimensions:19.5 in x 17.5 in. s.s:11.5 in x 9.5 in

Powell was born in Chichester, West Sussex, as a young man a sailor at sea but going on to become a self-taught maritime artist. He was much influenced by the Dutch seventeenth century maritime artists such as the Van de Veldes who came to England to work at Greenwich, first for Charles II and then for James II.
Between 1807 and1821 Powell exhibited 22 paintings at the Royal Academy, and between 1813 and 1821 he showed 11 at the British Institution, one of which was a massive view of Portsmouth Harbour measuring almost eight by eleven feet. Powell died on 31 May 1824 at the age of forty nine.