James Bard (1815 - 1897)

Signed and titled and dated in lower right 1858. The painting is inscribed in the lower left quadrant:  Owners, Marcus Sayre, Wm. B. Culter, Hirum Aderson, Dimensions, Length of keel 64, Breadth of beam 25ft., Depth of hold 6.

Descended in family;
Sotheby’s, New York, Important Americana, January 18, 2001, sale 7590, lot 460;
Private Collection.

The Bard Brothers: Painting America Under Steam and Sail, New York: Mariner's Museum in collaboration with Anthony J. Peluso, Jr., Harry M. Abrams Inc., 1997, p. 97, illus.;
The Sloops of the Hudson, William E. Verplanck and Moses W. Collyer, 1908;
The West Point Foundry and the Parrott Gun: A Short History (Short History Series), Hope Farm Press and Bookshop, updated watercolor portraits.

Relined, scattered in painting – cleaned around the signature, new frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"A fine Bard, in generous size and remarkable condition. She races across the Tappan Zee racing with the clouds before strong winds. Bard’s commission was one of several similar during the years 1852-1858. They came from Nyack builders of sloops, schooners and yachts, and from Manhattan sail-makers as well."

—A J Peluso, Jr.

Of the 459 known Bard paintings only nineteen are of sailing vessels, each built in the Nyack, New York area—including the Norma built in 1852.  The setting suggests Norma sailing upriver on the Tappan Zee, looking east from Nyack. 

Her home port was Cold Spring, in the Hudson Highlands, where she was engaged by the West Point Foundry to haul water pipe and intricate iron fencing from down-stream clients, and later on cannon balls for the Union army.  Nothing is known of her later career, but if her fate was typical, she would have been stripped of her rigging, and humbly transformed into a barge.

Bard's work can be divided into three distinct stylistic periods; the earliest when he worked with his twin brother John through 1849, a period of mostly naïve watercolor portraits; and the latest from 1870 until his retirement in 1890, a period of watercolor images of great precision.  Norma comes from the middle period, a unique, large, and exuberant oil.