“Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will have spare time to make art.”
Survival
ㅤㅤFishing is a primal struggle against nature, both against the might of the fish itself and the whims of the sea, that adds to the story of every fish and every fisherman throughout history. Every fish is a battle for life itself, one of the most primal and ancient struggles still ongoing in human history.
"Ship in the Stormy Sea"
Ivan Aivazovsky, 1887
(Form) - The piece is entirely dictated by diagonal lines. Implied lines from the top left corner stretch to the bottom left corner, following the tilt of the mast in the center and the angle of the waves to either side, intersected by perpendicular lines established by the crashing waves at the very bottom crashing and foaming into each other. The slanted lines establish constant movement, the churning of the ocean, emphasized by the large scale of the portrait. The painting captures an area hundreds of feet across and makes the massive vessel look small in comparison to the enormity of the ocean and the struggle to bring back the ocean's bounty.
"Watson and the Shark"
John Copley, 1778
(Context) - 25 years after a fateful shark attack that cost him his leg, Brook Watson commissioned this painting to immortalize the event and capture the deadliness of the sea, mere inches from civilization. The ocean will always be dangerous, even for an experienced cabin boy like himself. It is easy to see why sailors create tales of sea monsters like the Kraken. Sometimes, the fishermen become the prey.
"Lose their Compass, their ships slips between the teeth of a fish unknown in this part of the world"
Thomas Rowlandson, 1809
(Content) - Expressed subject matter: The enormous sea monster in the left swallows two three-masted ships on the left, prompting a swarm of sailors to board smaller vessels and row for their lives. The ships seem to be a part of a fleet, sailing the oceans when suddenly beset by the monster. The sea monster symbolizes the unknown of the sea; its endless depths hide creatures we are still learning about today. To sailors hundreds of years ago, it seems inevitable that something monstrous must reside in the depths where humanity has never gone.
"A Good Pool, Saguenay River"
Winslow Homer, 1895
(Content) - The enormous proportions of the fish, cool colors, and lack of detail point to the painting being symbolic rather than literal. These three fishermen may not have been fighting to bring home a whale-sized cod, but the colossal proportions of the fish represent its outsized impacts on their lives and the lives of people across the world. The fish is dead center, occupying by far the most space of any single object in the painting, and lit by some of the only warm lighting in the painting. Its scales contrast the greys and blues of the ocean, ice, and clouds, giving it an outsized impact on the painting and representing its outsized impact on fishermen.
Fish Throughout History
No matter how far back we trace our history, fish have always been with us.
Egyptian Relief from Mastaba of Kagemni at Saqqara, circa 3,000 BCE
Author and title lost to history
(Context) - This painting from over 5,000 years ago shows even the ancient Egyptians made art about fish, yet it is art only very few people will ever see. The Egyptians fished the Nile and the delta that connected it to the Mediterranean, using reed boats and spears to catch the catfish and Nile perch seen in the water below the boats. It is not honored in any tomb or immortalized on any pyramid, yet it is crucial to understand their lives and their values. Notably, they valued fish.
Faience (pottery) from the Roman Period, found in Egypt
Author and Title lost to history, circa 100 AD
(Context) - A faience is a kind of glazed pottery, one of the first humanity had ever discovered. This particular specimen, thought to have originated from the Roman period and measuring roughly 3 inches long by 2 inches wide, is an example of a fish common to Egypt. Immortalized in stone, it is a reminder of how omnipresent fish are in human history, an unbroken history of fishing passed through hundreds of generations. This faience and the relief above are separated by thousands of years and hundreds of miles, yet are still connected by one thing: fish.
"Saint Anthony Preaching to the Fish"
Juan Carreño de Miranda, 1646
(Context) - Fish even have a part to play in religion and Christian mythology; Saint Anthony, spreading the word of God, was turned away by the city of Rimini, Italy, seen in the left of the background. Anthony instead preached to the hordes of fish. He performed a miracle that drew the people out onto their boats to witness the event, also seen on the left, converting even the most hardened sinners. Anthony converted people with his passionate kindness and the strength of his conviction, seen in the gentle expression on his face while literally talking to fish.
Terracotta fish-plate
Bastis Painter, circa 375 BCE
(Form) - The plate is limited to a circle, trisected into three equal parts for three fish, with small concentric circles radiating outward from the center. The centermost black circle is then encircled by the orange circle with black stripes, then by the black circle partially obscured by the fish, then by the outer ring of the plate. These circles are then trisected into equal parts by three different fish, all unique yet occupying similar areas.
The fishy art on the plate shows the extent to which fish permeate human existence. Reliefs, paintings, pottery, and even kitchenware display fish because fish are everywhere. Goldfish, cod, tuna, salmon, trout, clownfish, catfish, bass - chances are you know all of these without thinking about it, or even realizing where you know it from. They are simply part of common knowledge. Unmentioned, but always there.
From Sea to Stomach
Claude Monet, 1886, "Three Fishing Boats"
(Form) - Made in an impressionist, low-detail style, these fishing boats represent the first part of fishing. The expedition. The image is viewed with an isometric perspective, using implied lines that run along the edges of the boat toward the water line to establish an angled viewpoint. It expresses unity through repetition and balance, roughly a boat for each side and the middle boat at the center of it all, while also balancing the top of the frame with the swirling ocean. Though not perfectly symmetrical with themselves or each other, the three boats lend a sense of peace and camaraderie to the painting. They imply three closely connected fishermen, at least, trusting each other enough to leave a very valuable possession behind.
Winslow Homer, 1885, "Halibut Fishing"
(Content) - This painting does not play coy with symbolism. There is a man in a rowboat gazing into the distance at dark, brooding stormclouds; there is a massive fish at the back of the boat; there is a turbulent ocean extending to the edges of the painting. Its expressed subject matter is clear and dramatic, capturing the fleeting moment of calm between the implied hooking of the halibut and being caught in the impending storm. The painting tells a fishing story. The subtext is filled with the innumerable complexities and tensions in the relationship between humanity, the sea, and fish. The fish in his boat can feed his family just as easily as it could have pulled him overboard. The sea, having shared its fishy bounty openly in one hand, is now coming to take his life just as easily in the other.
Adriaen Ostade, 1659, "The Fishwife"
(Content) - Up and down shore-towns of the medieval world, fishmongers were staples of the markets. Fish are the primary food source for millions of people, and the art of preparing them has been passed on for thousands of years. The primary character is the woman can be seen skillfully de-scaling a fish with a knife at the bottom of the painting, not even looking at the fish while she does it. Despite popular ideas of fishermen, fish are open to all. She is part of a bigger story of fish traditions that spans all of human history, the final preparation before the fish go to feed a hungry mouth.
Georg Flegel, 1637, "Still-Life with Fish"
(Form) - Finally, the fish can be enjoyed. The varied colors establish a visual line that trails from the more colorful red bottle in the upper left to almost shiny white bread and the off-putting fly on it, to finally the oddly symmetrical mess of mostly monochromatic fish on the plate, ready to be eaten. For the vast majority of fish encountering a human, this is where it ends up: nourishment for millions. The cycle of life continues through endless human toil and struggle, across time and space, delivering fish from Sea to Stomach. It's beautiful, in a way.
Fish are awesome, aren't they?