A Storm Behind the Isle of Wight (c.179(?)): Art, History and Details

A Storm Behind the Isle of Wight (c.179(?)) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Julius Caesar Ibbetson (British, 1759–1817).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The scene depicts a family's distress upon finding that one of its members has drowned off the rocky shore of the Isle of Wight during a storm. A ship sinks in the wild sea, amid swirling dark clouds and lightning flashes. The artist had visited the Isle of Wight in 1791. Ibbetson began his career by copying Dutch landscape paintings for dealers. He is known to have produced copies and fakes in the style of other masters as well.

Object facts

• Title: A Storm Behind the Isle of Wight
• Date: c.179(?)
• Creator attribution: Julius Caesar Ibbetson (British, 1759–1817)
• Culture: England, 18th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 70 x 85.5 x 5.5 cm (27 9/16 x 33 11/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 50.8 x 67.6 cm (20 x 26 5/8 in.)
• Collection: P - British before 1800
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1948.461

Collection credit

Bequest of Henry W. Kent

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.