Art of the Club

The Venetian Room, Lakeshore Room, and Connecting Hallways

By: Larry Stephenson, M.D.

There are three paintings on display in the Venetian Room; and by far the most impressive of these is the large oil hanging on the west wall. Despite local research that has been done over several years, the artist remains unknown. But scholars who have studied the painting at the Club agree it was very likely painted in the late 17th to early 18th century with a high probability that it is a copy of a painting from the 15th or 16th century. Considering the physical appearance and clothing of the people in the courtyard, along with their surroundings and the style of painting itself, it was probably copied from the work of a Dutch or Flemish artist, or perhaps one or more of their students. We also do not know when this painting was acquired, as there are no records of it being either purchased or gifted. The latest attempt to identify its origin was done in 2015 by two members of the GPYC Archives Committee with no success. The only documented fact we have concerning this painting is that it is hanging today exactly where it was in 1953, when it appears in the background of a photo in The Grosse Pointer from that year.

The remaining two paintings in the Venetian Room flank the doorway to the Ballroom. The painting on the right is entitled “Old Dredge on the Rouge River,” depicting an old wooden dredge tied to a tree with sailboats on the river in the background. Detroit artist Robert Hopkin completed this painting in 1908, just one year before his death in 1909. The painting is on loan from the Detroit Historical Society collection.

The painting to the left is an untitled rendering of a Clipper Ship signed by artist S. Kerland, about whom nothing is known.

The Lakeshore Room contains four impressive oils, two of which sport brass plaques reading “Presented to the GPYC by Past Commodores July 1965”. One of the two hangs on the south wall; (image above) it is a seascape with coastal cliffs and rolling waves. The artist is unknown.

The other painting with the Past Commodores plaque hangs on the right side of the west wall, painted by Rudolph Guba (1884-1950), depicting three single-masted sailboats on a hazy day. (Image to the left)

The painting on the left side of the west wall was done circa 1976 by American artist Frank Caldwell (1912-2002). The stern of a ship is shown on the horizon in a blending of the colors of sea and sky. A bronze plaque on this painting notes that it was gifted to the GPYC by Commodore J. Earl Fraser in 1976.

The final painting in the Lakeshore Room, hanging on the east wall, is a rendering of the three-masted schooner, Michigan. This 225-foot cargo ship was built in 1874 at the Detroit Drydock Company. It is believed that artist E. Walker has depicted her sailing in Lake Erie near the Detroit River. The painting is on loan from the Detroit Historical Society collection. The remainder of the display consists of GPYC-owned prints. It was decided not to publish photography of these. In the east-west hallway connecting the Venetian and Lakeshore Rooms, just across from the Ladies’ Lounge, hangs a print entitled “Two Decker Off Gibraltar.”The original of this Royal Navy Man-o-War was painted by William John Haggins (1781-1845), who was appointed Marine Painter to King William IV in 1830. (William had been the first English king to be appointed High Admiral of the British Navy in 1827.) This donated print was purchased by a GPYC member at the Royal British Navy Museum in Portsmouth, England.

Just outside the Lakeshore Room door, on the south wall in this same hallway, is a print of a triple-cockpit Chris Craft runabout underway on the north branch of the St. Clair River, being passed by the race boat Miss America One, driven by speedboat champion Gar Wood. The old Chris Craft manufacturing plant in Algonac is featured in the background by artist Homer C. La Cassey, Jr., who was a well-known design artist in the automotive industry.

The hallway running north-south leading to the elevator contains six prints, three on each side. Since the Club owns a number of interesting nautical prints, the Heritage Committee plans to rotate them periodically within this area.

The first print presently hanging on the east wall of this hallway is “The Great Lakes Freighter Victory Cliffs,” owned by the Cleveland Cliffs Steamship Line and rendered by well-known local maritime artist Jim Clary.

Second is another print of a Jim Clary painting, “Tashmoo Park”, in the St. Clair River flats, with the side wheeler steamboat Tashmoo shown downbound on the river. The third print, by prominent Michigan artist Robert McCreevy, features the Pewabic, a steam-powered passenger and cargo freighter built in 1863. With a top speed of 12 knots, it was the fastest freighter on the lakes until it sank in Lake Huron in 1869 with significant loss of life.

North to south on the west wall, the first print is “Detroit, Michigan, the City of the Straits” featuring the well-known Boblo passenger ferry Columbia downbound on its way to the popular island amusement park, by prominent Detroit artist William Moss. The second print here is by Jim Clary entitled “On a Summer Cruise.” It features the Noronic, a passenger ferry of the Canadian Steamship line, leaving the dock.

The third print is also by Jim Clary, entitled “American Republic, Cuyahoga Workhorse”. The American Republic was built by Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wi., and launched in 1980. She was a “workhorse” for America Steel Corp., delivering iron ore to a steel plant on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland.