Product Details

The name ‘Operation Sail’, was to be used again in 1976, 1989, 1992 & 2000. The painting is a water-level view of the International fleet, USS Forrestal aircraft carrier in background, and Statue of Liberty to the right. This was painted in 1976. Signed lower right. Verso signed, inscribed with artist’s copyrights and dedicated lower right. Please note this painting hung in the Rotunda of the Statue of Liberty Monument on Liberty Island, New York Harbor on July 4, 1988. Without frame measuring 48″ high by 70″ wide. With frame: 58″ high x 80″ wide Marine artist Kipp Soldwedel studied fine arts at Yale University and was awarded four Beaux Arts medals. He received a scholarship to the American Academy in Rome. During World War II, he was a flight instructor and meteorologist for the United States Air Force. Kipp Soldwedel is most well known for his maritime battle scenes though he did paint over 150 portraits of celebrities. His illustrations appeared in magazines such as National Geographic, Time, Life, and Town and Country. Many of his paintings depicted the tall ships. He was the known as one of the greatest modren masters of Marine Paintings. 1964 The first Operation Sail event, a tie-in with the New York World’s Fair, brought tall ships from around the world to New York Harbor for a grand parade of sail up the Hudson, led by the USCGC Eagle as the host ship. Many of the vessels raced from Plymouth, England, to Lisbon, Portugal, before setting off on a 3,000-mile transatlantic journey to Bermuda and then a 630-mile northwest run to New York. The event also featured lifeboat races, a ticker-tape parade up Broadway honoring seamen of every participating nation, and two grand balls. Mayor Robert Wagner proclaimed that week in July to be “Operation Sail Week,” and Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze reviewed the parade of sail from aboard the USS Randolph. It was the largest peacetime gathering of sailing ships up to that point in the century:12 Class A vessels, 11 Class B and C vessels, and thousands of spectator craft.