Category:William Gay Yorke

English: William Gay Yorke (1817-1892). Active (1849-1888). William G. Yorke, born 1817 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. His early life was spent around sailing vessels as a shipwright, painting in his spare time. In his early thirties, he was successful enough as a painter of ships to give up his trade and paint full-time. In 1848 he had a son, William Howard York (1847-1921), who he taught to paint and with whom he collaborated on ship paintings until 1870, when their relationship soured for unknown reasons; speculation was that the twenty-two year old artist wanted to go out on his own, rather than work with his father... By 1850 Yorke and son had moved to Liverpool. When they separated (1870) the older sailed for America, where he lived and painted to his death. He lived aboard his sailboat, which explains why many of his works are inscribed verso with different addresses. Later, his boat sank in a collision with a steamboat, and the accident caused him to lose an eye. Having lost all belongings, he was impoverished, and lived in a shanty he built on a canal boat in Brooklyn. The owner of the steamship which had rammed his sailboat eventually provided lodging for him and his family on one of his boats docked at Staten Island. Died in New York.