Thursday, August 7, 2014

Barges Heading out to Sea, 1782


Barges Heading out to Sea, Dominic Serres, 1782, Yale Center For British Art.

Although some collections do not have as many prints, paintings, and other images that are directly related to our study, the occasional images they do have can be very valuable. Both the Library of Congress and the Yale Center for British Art offer .tiff images. This file format is more detailed than the .png, .jpg, and most other types. This allows us to get much, much more detail out of an image that might otherwise be too vague for us to get much.

Dominic Serres' 1782 illustration "Barges Heading out to Sea" is just such an example. 


Only a few sailors (or perhaps watermen) work about this vessel. At the bow is a chap in (presumably) a short jacket with a knit cap or round hat with loose brim. Amidships and working at the barge's only mast, is a fellow in a short jacket that ends at the waist with no vents, a pair of trousers or slops, and a knit cap. At the tiller are a pair of men: the one on the left appears to be wearing a great coat, fearnought jacket, or some other heavy garment, and a round hat with a tall crown. Beside him is a man in a jacket with a round hat that has a round crown and a brim turned up on two sides.

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