Whilst talented, it should be recognised that OFP is seen and termed as a “gifted amateur”.   Might his reputation change as a result of a general growing appreciation of his work?  Hopefully this website may play a part in this.

Over the years I have attempted to list and categorise the various OFP paintings and etchings held by family and friends. It is clear that Canadian Pacific employed his art skills for a range of company publicity; two large oil paintings hung on the walls of Canadian Pacific offices in Montreal (and are hopefully retained their successors?) I have details of some commissioned works. Occasionally I have noticed an OFP painting appearing at art sales/auctions and finally this web site has attracted those people who own and value items of OFP art work to get in touch.  All these I have attempted to list below.

OFP’s art work falls into four categories : Etchings – Cartoon work – Oils – Watercolours

Etchings  – where OFP learned this specialised technique is not known but before WW1 he had produced two series based on square riggers : The Sea Shanty Series and the Famous Ship Series.  He continued to produce etchings throughout his sea going career, mainly of square riggers, liners and scenes of the exotic sites visited during his Canadian Pacific liner postings; indeed it is thought that he took a printing press on board each ship with him as part of his dunnage.  Several of his old copper plates are retained by the family and, though worn, can still produce prints; sadly his printing press was given away.

Cartoon Work – I spent over a year visiting the British Library Colindale Newspaper Archive searching for evidence of OFP’s drawings.  Despite the 1914 comment that “… his work is well known to the nautical profession throughout the country …  lively sketches and cartoons!”  I could only find his art work in the Liverpool Journal of Commerce.  This was a weekly edition in which OFP produced a variety of cartoons : full page lampoons of the Kaiser; naval lower deck life; illustrations of stories; caricatures of well known naval & military figures; cartoons to enhance reader’s jokes etc  For over a year OFP produced copious drawings and cartoons on a weekly basis; too many to list. Insert some examples*****

Oils and Watercolours – mainly of ships, sail and steam. It is clear that OFP, having served and obtained his commission in square riggers (like most CP officers) retained a love of these vanishing ships and captured many of the remaining fleet. Two oil portraits of OFP and his wife exist in isolation; however OFP is also known to have painted watercolour likenesses of liner passengers.

The OFP Etchings –

The Two Series :

The Sea Shanty Series comprises five etchings :  “Blow The Man Down #55” – “Rolling Home #56” – “Lee Fore Brace” – “The Weather Leach #48” – “Wet Work In The Waist #58” – two upright / three oblong – all depict tarpaulined & sou’westered seaman hauling sheets or fighting canvas in very heavy conditions with huge seas rolling in-board. The five named prints above are contained in a folder, prefaced with a Brown, Son & Ferguson advertisement and selling at 12s 6d each, mounted ready for framing and “personally printed and signed by the artist himself”. Four have a stanza of a relevant chantey attached. None of these prints are dated – four are numbered – see list below…. In some cases OFP created  different print versions with the same title!

The Famous Ships Series comprises six oblong etchings of square rigged ships : “CUTTY SARK – China Tea Clipper” – “DREADNOUGHT – American Mail Packet” – “GARTHPOOL – Last British Windjammer #47” = “LAKE ERIE – Canadian Emigrant Ship #43” – “STRATHEARN – Canadian Emigrant Ship #46” – “WHITE STAR – Australian Passenger Ship #28 & #44”. Again these six prints are advertised as above but priced at 7s 6d each.  Some of ships above are missing from the folder but can be deduced from the list below – the Cutty Sark does not appear – possibly it was #42 ?

Numbered Etchings

The majority of OFP’s etchings contain a small circle with a number and “OFP”; I have therefore left gaps where particular etchings are yet to be discovered.  Many of his prints are labelled and/or signed – where this is not the case I have had to describe the print. Some of the prints have been coloured.

No                                          Description                                                           Location

4.                                     EMPRESS of AUSTRALIA                                SJM/JGP
7.                                     MADERIA   check. out JPG 7a ?….                          JPG
8.                                 In the Arab Quarter,  ALGIERS                             SJM/JPG
9.                       View from the Lower Terrace, MONTE CARLO  check         JPG
10.                               COLOMBO, the Galle Face – check                       SJM/JPG
12.                                          TAJ MAHAL                                                   SJM/JPG
14.                                  APPROACHING  CHIN WANTOA  check                    JPG
15.                                SWATOW FISHING JUNKS    check                            JPG
16.                                        JAPAN  Inland sea                                          SJM/JPG
17.                                EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA  check                            JPG
18.                                EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA  check                            JPG
19.                              Un named steamer – number 19 unclear                      SJM
20.                              EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA                                           SJM
21.                              EMPRESS OF BRITAIN                                                 SJM
23.                          Un named liner – probably Empress of Britain                  SJM
28.                       WHITE STAR – Austtralian Emigrant Ship                          AR/ZP
29.                      STRATHEARN – Canadian Emigrant Ship                        SJM/AR
34.                       Un named – Gaff Rigged Schooner                            SJM/AR/RG
36.                              EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA                                         SJM
37.                                 YACHT HUSSAR   NYYC                                          SJM
38.                             Un named  – a tropical house                                         LD
39.                          THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS – VENICE                              LD/TR
41.                                 THE CANAL – TUNIS                                              SJM
43.                             LAKE ERIE – Canadian Emigrant Ship                      SJM
44.                            WHITE STAR – Australian Emigrant Ship                 SJM/ZP
45.                            DREADNOUGHT – American Packet Boat              SJM/ZP
46.                          STRATHHEARN – Canadian Emigrant Ship                 ZP
47.                           GARTHPOOL – Last British Windjammer               SJM/DP
48.                               THE WEATHER LEACH                                      SJM/ZP
50.                            RMS EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA                              SJM
52.                               EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA                                    SJM
55.                                BLOW THE MAN DOWN
56.                              ROLLING HOME – Capstan Chantey                       SJM
58.                               WET WORK IN THE WAIST                                    RG
62.                                        THE PYRAMIDS                                          SJM/ZP
63.                               EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA
64.                                       CARRADALE                                              GT
65.                        MOSQUE OF OMAR – JERUSALEM                         LD
66.                             THE RIALTO BRIDGE – VENICE                        SJM
67.                             Un named- Venitian Gondola                              SJM
68.                          GEIRANGER FJORD – MEREK                             AR
70.                             EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA
71.                      Un named – Full Rigged Ship                                      SJM

UnNumbered Etchings

•   LADIES IN WAITING – timber schooners          FN/ZP
•   M.Y. OWL   – small motor yacht                        SJM
•   Un named – twin towered cathedral                    SJM
•   UPAIA GATEWAY – RABAT                                DP

In doubt – to be checked : Barque Carradale – AR/GT ; Lee Fore Brace – AR ; Lee Fore Brace – RG  ; Maderia – DP/TR ; Mosque Gateway – DP

OFP created an etched 1918 New Years Greetings Card – the front cover has a picture of HMS Kidwelly Castle – the inside consists of the faces of 35 officers plus their names with the inscription :” Greetings fom the Officers of the Mine-Sweepers, Patrol Trawlers and Drifters of the Portsmouth Command” – owned by his daughter LP.

Location Key =

• AR = Avrille Robb
• CM = Claude Meldrum
• CES = Chris Embleton-Smith
• DFJP = DFJ Pennington
• DP = Don Powel
• GT = Gordon Turner, Canadian author
• FN = Fay & Howard Nash
• JM = John Monro
• KD = Ken Demerling
• LP = Lilian & Des Dowding
• RG  = Roland Gehrke
• ZP = Ziggy Pennington
• SJM = Stuart & Jeni Morgan
• TR = Tracey Robb
• VO = Victoria Osbourne

OFP WATERCOLOURS

• Clan McFarlane – three mast square rigger –            VO
• HMS Rugby                                                                SJM
• Parisian                                                                       CM
• Portrait of a girl laughing                                               AR
• Romanoff                                                                   DFJP
• Sobraon                                                                      CES
• Ventura – sailing ship –                                                ZP
• WW2 Arctic convoy – possibly Winnipeg II               SJM
• WW2 Destroyer – unnamed –                                     ZP
• Canadian Corvette K170                                          KD
• Unnamed 4 masted ship                                          CES

 

 

 

OFP  OIL  PAINTINGS

• Beaverdell – GT
• Beaverglen – GT
• Claverdon – square rigged ship – whereabouts unknown
• Cutty Sark – commissioned 1945 for a Dr AL Lynch of Vancouver
• Empress of Australia II – whereabouts unknown
• Empress of Britain – whereabouts unknown – once hung in CP’s Southampton offices
• Empress of Canada – CP Ships Montreal # 130
• Empress of Scotland – CP Ships Montreal # 49
• Empress of France – AR ?
• Lightning – square rigger – JM
• SS Metagama Leaving Liverpool – Stornaway Museum, Isle of Lewis
• Ship Glenholm – square rigger –  LP  – can be dated to 1952 from this photo

•  Square Rigged Ship   unnamed  –      SJM
• Two Square Rigged Ship paintings – unnamed  – AR
• Self Portait in naval uniform – AR
• Portrait of OFP’s wife Lilian – LP

• Lee Fore Brace – HQS Wellington – these three paintings were donated to 
• Down Fore Tack – HQS Wellington  the Honourable Company of Master
  
• The Weather Leach – HQS Wellington  – Mariners and are hung on the main deck of their Headquarters Ship on the Thames – may be viewed by appointment.

Commercial Prints 

Brown Son and Ferguson of Glasgow still market the following prints. I have inquired as to the whereabouts of the original paintings but they have no information.  I believe that they commenced selling these works in the 1920s.

• Harbinger
• Cutty Sark
• Mount Stewart Passing the Needles
• Carradale
• HMS Arethusa
• Sobraon
• Machrihanish

OFP ART WORK SOLD AT AUCTION

Over the years I have noticed several OFP items that have been sold at various art auctions; sadly always after the event and so have not been able to bid.

• Cattle Watering in a River Valley – by OFP, Bonhams, Jan 2007; I emailed them – no more information – perhaps this is by his father ?
• Clipper Under Full Sail – sold Mallems, Oxford 10/10/2008
• The Storm – sold by Live Auctioneers, New York in Jan 2009
• SS Montrose with Tugs in Attendance – Outhwaite & Litherland 1995