# William Pierce Stubbs artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/william-pierce-stubbs/
Profile generated: 2026-05-23T11:17:23.350Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Death date: 1909-05-15
- Nationality: American
- Movements: 19th-century American marine painting
- Common media: oil on canvas

## About William Pierce Stubbs

William Pierce Stubbs (1842–1909) was an American marine painter active in the Boston, Massachusetts, area during the second half of the 19th century. Born in Bucksport, Maine, Stubbs specialized in ship portraits and maritime scenes, a genre with strong regional demand in New England's port cities. He shared a Boston studio with fellow marine painter Wesley Webber, placing him within a circle of commercially successful maritime artists working in the city. His paintings are held by the Bostonian Society, the Cape Ann Museum, and the Peabody Essex Museum, institutions with significant American maritime collections. Stubbs died in Medfield, Massachusetts, in 1909. He is recorded in the Getty Union List of Artist Names, the Library of Congress Name Authority File, VIAF, and the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD).

## Common works and media

Stubbs' most commonly encountered works are oil-on-canvas ship portraits depicting individual sailing vessels, often shown in coastal or harbor settings. These paintings typically feature detailed renderings of rigging, hulls, and flags set against open water or port backgrounds. Marine subjects dominate his known output. Works may be signed "W.P. Stubbs" or "William P. Stubbs." Smaller harbor scenes and coastal views also appear in auction records, though less frequently than full ship portraits.

## Market and appraisal context

William Pierce Stubbs' works appear at auction primarily as ship portraits and coastal maritime scenes in oil on canvas. Collectors should consider the specificity of the vessel depicted, the accuracy of rigging and hull detail, overall condition, and provenance when evaluating a Stubbs painting. Institutional holdings at the Cape Ann Museum and Peabody Essex Museum provide useful comparable references. Because no published catalogue raisonné is known, attribution of unsigned or poorly documented works should be approached carefully and supported by expert opinion.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from library authorities and museum records with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For William Pierce Stubbs, identity data is sourced from the Getty ULAN, VIAF, RKD, Wikidata, and published biographical references including Groce and Wallace's The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America and Falk's Who Was Who in American Art.

## Sources

- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/75899
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/53998826/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500005747
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8016887
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pierce_Stubbs
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr90020409