Race Off the Battery, Castle Garden, New York Harbor

oil on canvas

PAINTINGS - OIL
marad; paintings
Buttersworth, James E.
USA, NY, New York Bay
textile; oil paint; wood
stretcher 20-1/8 x 30 in.; frame 23-1/4 x 33-1/8 x 2-1/2 in.

Oil painting on canvas of Race off the Battery, Castle Garden, NY Harbor, by James E. Buttersworth, depicts the schooner yacht DAUNTLESS; ex-L'HIRONDELLE at right, 2 schooners & 3 sloops in background; schooner MAGIC at far left. Signed lower right "J. E. Buttersworth".
Launched at Mystic, Connecticut, in 1866, as L'HIRONDELLE, the schooner yacht DAUNTLESS was owned by the flamboyant yachtsman and newspaper editor James Gordon Bennett, Jr., from 1867 to 1878. After Bennett became New York Yacht Club Commodore in 1871, DAUNTLESS became an especially popular subject for marine artist James Buttersworth, who produced at least a dozen paintings of her. As depicted here, Bennett often raced his schooner, participating in the first defense of the America's Cup in 1870 and in many New York Yacht Club races. He and his professional crew also sailed the 116-foot schooner to Europe several times.

1976.172