Thomas Chambers

Thomas Chambers painted American harbours, rivers and waterfalls in a bold, flat, decorative style. His skies are bright, his water is patterned and his trees look almost like cut-outs. He is often classed as a folk or naive painter, and his work has been called “the first American modern”.

He was born in Whitby, England, in 1808, and emigrated to the United States in 1832. He worked in New York, Boston and Albany, often basing his compositions on engravings by William Henry Bartlett and others, though he also painted outdoors. His subjects include the Hudson River Valley, Niagara Falls, Boston Harbor and naval battles of the War of 1812. Most of his paintings are unsigned, and he was forgotten until a signed painting surfaced in 1942. He returned to England and died in Whitby in 1869.

In Boston Harbor, look at the stylised waves and clouds, the features that make his work so recognisable.