Art and the Sea gallery

The Art and the sea gallery features a changing selection of paintings and ship models from the Merseyside Maritime Museum collections.

Liverpool has had a thriving artistic community for more than 200 years. Most of these paintings are by artists who lived locally. They include portraits of ships which were owned and operated from Liverpool as well as views of the port and river. The majority were painted for the ships owners, builders, captains or crew. They are generally very accurate.

The collection of ship models is large and wide ranging. Whilst there are many vessels with a Merseyside connection, there is good coverage of British merchant ships in general. The collection also includes warships, fishing craft and models made by French prisoners of war from about 1790 to 1815.

Display highlights

The displays of maritime paintings and ship models are changed regularly so that the full range of the collections can be seen.

To accompany the exhibition Titanic and Liverpool: the untold story| there is currently a display of models, paintings and posters from the White Star Line in the Aret and the Sea gallery.

Further information

The Illustrated Catalogue of Marine Paintings| features some of the Museum's finest oil paintings in full colour and is available to buy from the online shop, as well as the museum gift shop|.

See all of the paintings from the collection on the BBC 'Your Paintings' website|.