Lot 86: John Russell Chancellor (British, 1925-1984) The three-masted topsail schooner Elizabeth Bennett off the Normandy coast

The three-masted topsail schooner Elizabeth Bennett off the Normandy coast
signed 'John Chancellor' (lower right)
oil on canvas
66 x 91.4cm (26 x 36in).

LITERATURE :
Rita Chancellor & Austin Hawkins, John Chancellor’s Classic Maritime Paintings, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1st ed., 1989, p. 63, illustrated [but named as Elizabeth Bennet (sic)].

Constructed of wood throughout and rigged as a three-masted topsail schooner, the Elizabeth Bennett was built in Brundrit’s yard at Runcorn, Cheshire, and launched in 1884. Owned by Allen Green & Co. of Liverpool, she was registered at 162 tons gross (150 net) and measured 104 feet in length with a 23 foot beam.

These commercial topsail schooners were both good sailers and economical to operate, and the Elizabeth Bennett traded mostly to the Continent although many of her breed worked the North Atlantic. In this lively work, Chancellor shows her eastbound off the North Brittany coast and passing through a fleet of homeward-bound French chasse-marée luggers.