Fine Arts

Seas, Ships, and Storms: The Maritime World of Charles Brooking

The 18th-century painter’s scenic seascapes are now regarded among Britain’s finest marine paintings.
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Seas, Ships, and Storms: The Maritime World of Charles Brooking
"Ship Wrecked on a Rocky Coast," circa 1747–1750, by Charles Brooking. Oil on canvas; 14 1/2 inches by 22 inches. Yale Center for British Art. Public Domain
Sarah Isak-Goode
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If you’ve read David Grann’s bestselling nonfiction book, “The Wager,” you’ve encountered the same maritime world Charles Brooking recorded in paint. His canvases captured the same conditions David Grann reconstructs from documents and testimony: the violence of open-ocean storms, the fragility of wooden hulls, the decisions that determine who comes home.

(Left) Cover of David Grann's 2023 non-fiction book "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder."(Right) “The Wager,” 1744, by Charles Brooking. Oil on canvas. This painting of HMS Wager is featured inside David Grann’s bestselling book. The ship was an armed Royal Navy vessel originally built to carry large cargoes from the Far East. It was wrecked off the coast of Chile in 1741.
(Left) Cover of David Grann's 2023 non-fiction book "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder."(Right) “The Wager,” 1744, by Charles Brooking. Oil on canvas. This painting of HMS Wager is featured inside David Grann’s bestselling book. The ship was an armed Royal Navy vessel originally built to carry large cargoes from the Far East. It was wrecked off the coast of Chile in 1741.
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Sarah Isak-Goode
Sarah Isak-Goode
Author
Sarah Isak-Goode is a writer and art historian rooted in the Pacific Northwest. Her name—pronounced EYE-zik-good and meaning "good laugh"—hints at the warmth she brings to everything she does. Equal parts scholar and storyteller, Sarah brings the past to life through a distinctly human lens, exploring what connects us across the centuries. Away from her desk, she feeds her curiosity through traveling, painting, reading, and hiking with her dog, Thor.