Shipboard

George Copeland Ault

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

Depicting a cluster of smokestacks, ducts, and pipes on an ocean liner, this drawing features the kinds of mechanical and industrial imagery embraced by Precisionist artists as icons of modern America. A style that arose in the 1920s, Precisionism was characterized by simplified geometric forms and an absence of human beings. Here George Copeland Ault cropped the view of the ship’s machinery in order to focus attention on the aesthetic potential of his subject—the play of rounded and linear shapes and dark and light tones—rather than its practical function.

Caption

George Copeland Ault American, 1891–1948. Shipboard, 1924. Graphite on medium, cream, slightly textured, wove paper, Sheet: 9 x 6 in. (22.9 x 15.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Manhattan Art Investments, LP, 2007.46. Orphaned work (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2007.46_PS2.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

American Art

Title

Shipboard

Date

1924

Medium

Graphite on medium, cream, slightly textured, wove paper

Classification

Drawing

Dimensions

Sheet: 9 x 6 in. (22.9 x 15.2 cm)

Signatures

Signed in graphite, upper left: "G.C. Ault '24."

Credit Line

Gift of Manhattan Art Investments, LP

Accession Number

2007.46

Rights

Orphaned work

After diligent research, the Museum is unable to locate contact information for the artist or artist's estate, or there are no known living heirs.Copyright for this work may be controlled by the artist, the artist's estate, or other rights holders. A more detailed analysis of its rights history may, however, place it in the public domain. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

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