George Chambers Snr (1803–1840) was one of the great marine painters of the 19th century. His life has something of a tale of romance about it: born into a mariner family in a poor working class area of Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast, by the age of eight he was working on the coal sloops in the town harbour and two years later he was serving as cabin boy on his uncle’s coasting vessel, the Experiment. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to the brig Equity, trading in the Mediterranean and Baltic, under Captain Storr. But George's heart was with his art, and his innate ability to paint and draw so impressed local captains and crews that Storr released the young sailor early from his indenture, so that he could return to Whitby to paint full-time. Chambers found employment lettering and decorating the hulls of visiting ships, as well as working as a house painter and taking lessons from a Whitby drawing master in his spare time.
The interconnection of art and the sea continued for the young and diffident Chambers when he moved to London in around 1820 after the death of his mother. Chambers found patronage under Christopher Crawford—formerly of Whitby—who kept the Waterman's Arms at Wapping, where Whitby colliers berthed on the Thames. Crawford had been a comedian at Whitby and a doctor on a Greenland ship before settling as a publican. The upstairs at the Waterman's Arms, known as the 'House of Lords', was frequented by Whitby shipowners, who decided they wanted a picture of their town on the wall. Chambers was recommended for the job, but when Crawford first sought him out he found the young artist shy and reluctant. It was only through Crawford's persistence—seeing Chambers's immense talent—that Chambers finally agreed to the commission. This was the first of many, as word spread of Chambers's work amongst the shipowners and nautical clientele of the Waterman's Arms.
Chambers also worked as a scene painter in the late 1820s on Thomas Hornor’s Panorama of London, at the London Colosseum in Regent's Park, and at the Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel (1830–31). In 1829 two of his pictures were purchased by Admiral Thomas Capel who drew his merits to the attention of other officers, including Admiral Lord Mark Kerr. The latter in turn secured him the patronage of King William IV and Queen Adelaide who bought four of his paintings. He exhibited works at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists and the Old Water-colour Society, of which he was elected member in 1834. In 1837 he embarked on his one substantial artistic tour of the Netherlands.
Chambers's most important later commission was The Bombardment of Algiers, 1816, ordered by Lord Exmouth for the Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital in 1836 (now in the National Maritime Museum).
The tale of the young self-taught cabin boy artist made good—and the life of the most promising marine painter of his generation—was tragically cut short by chronic ill health and his death shortly after his thirty-seventh birthday.
Chambers is known to have been influenced by the maritime painter Thomas Whitcombe (c.1763– c.1824) and Richard Parkes Bonington (1802–1828). He was also a friend of artists Thomas Sidney Cooper (1803–1902) and James Baker Pyne (1800–1870).
The works of George Chambers Snr can be found in numerous public collections, including the National Maritime Museum, Tate, British Museum, National Galleries of Scotland, Birmingham Art Gallery, Laing Art Gallery and Ferens Art Gallery.
