Sailboats at Liberty Island- Statue of Liberty

This painting is nearly identical to the one of Douglas Bay except the Tower of Refuge has been replaced by the Statue of Liberty. Interestingly, Sawyer painted the two landmarks as approximately the same size, when in reality, the Statue of Liberty is nearly 8 times taller! Perhaps the artist simply attempted to maintain the composition of the original and created 'mirrored' paintings of the start and finish of his journey. I like to think that perhaps he was making a statement about the equality of the two countries by portraying their national landmarks as equals. In either case, the paintings tell the story of our family's Manx-American immigration.







Perhaps historians could tell us whether sailboats such as these were the most frequent vessels in New York Harbor at the turn of the century, or whether the steamboats (depicted as ghosts in the background) were actually more common.  






















Again, one of Sawyer's nimble shadow sailors works under the boom.





The sun shines on a sapphire waters, rather atypical for the greys of New York Harbor.