The Phone Call, 1906 24" x 24" oil on canvas

The steamship, SAN JOSE, first refrigerated cargo vessel ever built, starts loading general cargo at Long Wharf in Boston for her trip south to the banana plantations of Central America.

The United Fruit Company steamship, easily identified by her white hull, large funnel, and distinctive stack insignia, is spewing acrid smoke over the North End of Boston. But the Vice President of Operations, from his office on State Street, only sees his steamer and warehouses getting sullied and is on
the phone to Long Wharf to get the word to the Chief Engineer of SAN JOSE that the V.P. is not happy.

The small steam lighter only has a few slings left to do, and she and her tug will move off for other work.

In doing the painting, I was trying to create a sense of volume and mass using a limited palette and light and dark contrasts to emphasize the SAN JOSE.