A rare and captivating oil painting of the MS Viking I, signed and dated G.R. Cattermole 1976 — painted while the ship was in active service on the Southampton–Cherbourg route for Thoresen Ferries. This is a contemporary document, not a retrospective piece.
Cattermole’s style here is confidently modernist — flat planes of colour, industrial clarity, no romantic sea drama. The comparison with Charles Sheeler’s paintings of American industry isn’t far off: the same tonal discipline, the same unsentimental respect for a working machine. The Saltire on the stern places it precisely in its moment.
That restraint is exactly what makes it work on a wall. It sits naturally alongside mid-century furniture — the muted blue-grey sky, the flat greens and deep reds read as a period palette, not decoration. Something to look at, not something to match your cushions.
The Viking I ran cross-Channel RORO service from the late 1960s until decommissioning in 2008 — forty years of car-ferry travel at its mid-century peak. This painting catches it at that peak, bow wave up, fully in its element.
Vibrant colour, no fading. Simple wooden frame in good condition. 61cm x 35cm approx including frame.
