Description
Title“Ships That Pass In the Night” RMS Titanic Under Full Nocturnal Moon with RMS Olympic White Star Line Liner in the Distance by Andrew Grant Kurtis
Subject & Medium
A large dramatic marine mastrepiece painting, collector-grade moonlit maritime nocturne depicting RMS Titanic underway on calm Atlantic waters, her illuminated presence cutting through an inky, reflective sea. In the far distance a second White Star Line liner—RMS Olympic, Titanic’s near-identical sister ship—appears on the horizon, lending the scene an added layer of historic romance and connoisseurship.
Medium: Oil on canvas (late 20th century modern depiction)
Style / School: Contemporary traditional / academic realism within marine painting, treated as a nocturne—romantic, nostalgic historicism emphasising atmosphere, tonal contrast, and reflective light on water
Composition & Technique
This is a painting built around light, distance, and stillness—the three pillars of a great nocturne. Kurtis places the moon high in a veil of broken cloud, allowing soft, silvery illumination to fall in a long path across the water. The sea is handled with layered, confident brushwork: deep blue-black passages are lifted by shimmering strokes that catch the moonlight, creating that hypnotic rhythm of night water.
Titanic’s silhouette is composed with strong architectural clarity—hull mass, superstructure, and funnels reading cleanly against the sky—while tiny points of deck illumination provide scale and grandeur. RMS Olympic, set back into the haze of distance, is deliberately quieter and softened by atmospheric perspective, so the viewer experiences her almost like an echo: two White Star giants sharing the same ocean under the same moon.
The overall effect is refined rather than sensational—elegiac, composed, and intensely decorative in the best sense.
Reserve: $9,042.00
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Condition
Used
Buyer's Premium
20%
Ships That Pass In the Night RMS Titanic Under Nocturnal Moon with RMS Olympic
Estimate $11,000-$13,000
Starting Price
$4,400
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Shipping & Pickup DetailsItem located in: United Kingdom Offers In-House Shipping
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Meet the Auction House
10373
4.5
53184
Marine, Naval & Military Art Auction
Feb 12, 2026 2:00 PM ESTNew York, NY, United States
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