Warren W. Sheppard
American (1858-1937)
Marine painter Warren W. Sheppard was born in Greenwich, New Jersey, to a ship captain father who instilled in his son a love and respect for the sea. He studied privately with Mauritz F. H. De Haas and took courses in drawing at Cooper Union in New York City. He traveled along the Mediterranean coast in 1879, sketching the ports of Naples, Gibraltar, Genoa and Messina. Sheppard’s foreign tours continued between 1888 and 1893, with stays in Paris and Venice, where he captured the architecture and busy canals of the Floating City. This fondness for travel also translated to his home country. He sailed along the East Coast from New Jersey to Maine in search of subjects and was an expert navigator, eventually writing the book, Practical Navigation. Yacht design became a second career for Sheppard and he participated in a number of sailing competitions himself, most notably winning the New York-to-Bermuda race twice while skipper of the Tamerlane. Sheppard exhibited at the Denver Exposition, Chicago Exposition, St. Louis Exposition, Brooklyn Allied Artists Group Shows and National Academy of Design. His works are in the public collections of the Toledo Museum of Art, Mystic Seaport Museum, Peabody Essex Museum and Museum of the City of New York.
