Sea Maiden 1 Ashley Grande

Mermaid art and story by Robert Kline


This is a retired Sea Maiden art print that is limited in supply and therefore currently available for purchase in the following matted sizes: 5″ x 7″, 8″ x 10″ and 11″ x 14″.

This beautiful mermaid art print and story are from a collection of Sea Maidens (mermaids), Sea Babies (mermaid babies), Sea Masters (merman), pirates, lighthouses and fairies created by renowned artist and novelist Robert Kline of St. Augustine, Florida. The print is a lithograph reproduction of Robert’s original watercolor and pencil painting. Hand labeled and signed by Robert in pencil, all the prints come with a 1/4″ foam backing and the 5″ x 7″, 8″ x 10″, 11″ x 14″ are matted so all you need is a frame and they are ready to hang on your wall! Each print also comes with an excerpt from Robert’s novel The Forgotten Voyage of H.M.S. Baci. A fantastic saga in which multiple generations of the Roberts’ family explore the seven seas in search of the world’s mermaid and merman population. Thus, you receive the passage from Robert’s novel describing the particular event in which the character(s) in the print were sighted. The following is the excerpt written for the Sea Maiden 1 Ashley print:

In the summer of 1912 Western civilization had every right to believe it was finished with rumors of Sea Maidens. And yet, in that most scientific of years, while the world cavorted in self-absorbed folly near the quicksand that would be the War to end all Wars, there occurred a conjunction of destiny, madness, loneliness and a son’s need to find his parents that once again brought those mythical creatures to the fore. Edmund C. Roberts, grandson and sole heir to the vast fortune of Sir Edmund Roberts, purchased a steamship, hoisted his Bleriot XI aeroplane (a modern wonder of sticks, canvas, piano wire and a reluctant engine) and set sail (more accurately “steamed forth”) to solve the mystery of his parents’ disappearance. Along the way he intended to put an end to the haze of derision that had befogged his family and his youth by capturing a Sea Maiden and returning with her to swim before his doubters. Ironically, Edmund C. Roberts, noted womanizer, society scoundrel and currently bereft from the loss of the only woman he had ever truly loved, longed to be shut of them; this quest, therefore, to take place “in the glorious absence of female company and temptation”. Afloat with a ship full of men, he was determined to come to grips with his past. They left England and immediately navigated a third of the way around the globe.

Edmund C. Roberts stood on his side of the bridge and felt the comforting resonance of the ship beneath him. A pall of black coal smoke floated as a diminishing line above their wake; an apt marker for a voyage that was so far, a disappointment at best. He had encountered no living soul with even a vague recollection of his parents’ passing. He’d seen no Sea Maidens, and his attempts to take off and land his aeroplane from the makeshift platform that ran the length of his ship were exercises in survival, consuming the mountain of spare part she’d bought and frequently bringing him to within the shadow of serious injury or death. Of the five engines boxed and stowed aboard, two were now smashed and one was somewhere at the bottom of the sea. And his plan to keep his ship all male had proved a mockery from the beginning.

But he was off the coast of Gran Colombia now, lost in thought, depressed and clutching in his hand the finale letter from his parents. More than thirty years old, tattered and soiled, fondled, cursed and salt stained, it was the last touch from his mother’s hand. “We will be back, my dearest Edmund, though not soon enough for your mother’s aching heart. And when we return we will never, ever leave you again. I will hold you tightly, my precious child, and I will not let go. Dream of me, sweet dearest, and always, always remember our kiss—our baci finale. Until you are in my arms once more, I am and always will be, your loving mother.”

Edmund C. did not remember that kiss, though its thought haunted him, its reality elusive; alive only in the fading script of his mothers words. The sun had risen, the ripe smell of land and jungle overlaying the ever-present sweetness of burning coal. Today his luck would change. Today the cloak of loneliness and despair would start to rend.

It began just after noon, the day already steamy, his monoplane once more poised and noisy at the end of his makeshift runway, the Baci Finale heading into the wind, slicing the warm Pacific sea with her plumb bow. “Wish me luck, old chap,” he shouted to his mechanic, the little aeroplane shaking as the latest engine sputtered and coughed before truly coming to life. Three sailors released their grasp of the rudder as Edmund C. powered up and squinted ahead. The latest version of their catapult snapped into action and the tiny aeroplane and its pilot accelerated toward the end of the ship and the wide ocean. The tail lifted and they raced on. Off the bow of the ship, and then the stomach-churning drop as Edmund C. and his aeroplane fought for airworthiness. It was gained sooner than ever before and he was aloft and in tentative control. He circled his ship as he fought for altitude and then headed off toward the beach described in his grandfather’s notebook. A splash of orange and white and it was done—his first Sea Maiden sighting. The aviator quietly smiled and then after a gentle diving curve flew by once more. The Sea Maiden, startled from reverie, looked up shielding her eyes. Edmund C. passed, she removed her self to the oceans embrace, and the adventure was engaged.

Edmund C. Roberts’ notebook reads:

One cannot but wonder where it will lead. My first Sea Maiden sighting.

Maidenus satisfactus

Ashley

Tail of a clownfish. Wonderful chest. Long hair.

Gran Columbia, South America

August 4, 1912

Sea Maiden 1 Amelia by Robert Kline

Mermaid art and story by Robert Kline

This Sea Maiden print has been retired and is sold out. Sorry, it is no longer available.

This beautiful mermaid art print and story are from a collection of Sea Maidens (mermaids), Sea Babies (mermaid babies), Sea Masters (merman), pirates, lighthouses and fairies created by renowned artist and novelist Robert Kline of St. Augustine, Florida. The print is a lithograph reproduction of Robert’s original watercolor and pencil painting. Hand labeled and signed by Robert in pencil, all the prints come with a 1/4″ foam backing and the 5″ x 7″, 8″ x 10″, 11″ x 14″ are matted so all you need is a frame and they are ready to hang on your wall! Each print also comes with an excerpt from Robert’s novel The Forgotten Voyage of H.M.S. Baci. A fantastic saga in which multiple generations of the Roberts’ family explore the seven seas in search of the world’s mermaid and merman population. Thus, you receive the passage from Robert’s novel describing the particular event in which the character(s) in the print were sighted. The following is the excerpt written for the Sea Maiden 1 Amelia print:

On December 26th, 1831, Sir Edmund Roberts outfitted the H.M.S. Baci for a naturalist’s circumnavigation of the globe. His primary and sole purpose was to observe and subsequently classify the various oceans’ diversity of Sea Maidens as he called them. Convinced that they existed outside of folklore, Sir Edmund was determined to systematically pursue them. “I’ll find them, for I am more patient than Job,” he loved to say.

Roberts took with him two watercolorists schooled in botanical illustration. They were the first harvests of the voyages fantastic ill luck. Williams, the primary artist, perished in a gale just four days out of port. Bistro, his assistant, and a suspect romantic, lost his footing and fell to the sea one night while admiring the Baci’s figure head.

Sir Edmund determined to learn the craft himself. Roberts completed his voyage in 1837. He had, however, become progressively more eccentric with each year at sea and was completely undone when his Sea Maidens – Notebooks and Observations was dismissed as “lunatic ravings in the company of obscene art.”

Both the notebooks and the illustrations remained in obscurity until discovered in a London warehouse in 1998. Selected excerpts and paintings are to be released in succession.

It should be noted that while Sir Edmund selected the Latin name for each Sea Maiden, he gave the honor of bestowing the common name to the seaman who first sighted her. Consequently, there followed a fool’s carnival of names with mothers and prostitutes predominating.

Maidenus Magnifica

“Amelia”
February 18, 1832
Cape Verde Island

Seen on a moonlit night by a member watering crew who strayed in the company of a bottle of rum. He Observed her for most of the night until he gathered sufficient sense to report to me. We watched her until the false dawn. Medium height. Medium weight. Dark hair. Could not identify the object of her preoccupation. Exultant with our first sighting so early in the voyage.

Sea Maiden 24 Willow by Robert Kline

Sea Maiden 24 Willow by Robert Kline

How do mermaids reproduce?

While struggling in the embrace of unbridled villainy, Edmund C. Roberts managed to solve an ages old mystery. He had asked the question of himself as recently as the previous fore night. His grandfather, Sir Edmund Roberts had repeatedly posed the question and was unable to discover it’s answer, and his great, great, great grandfather, the pirate lord, Samuel Edmund Roberts had broached the dilemma in his journal in the 1600’s. “The question be, you Sea Maiden, she cavorts in the company of ‘er one mate fer life, an’ tho time an’ again we seen her in the company of a’ Sea Babies, still, it don’ seem clearlike how she goes about makin’ a wee one.” Sir Edmund Roberts’ 1834 query was even more to the point, “One confronts the enigma with caution, though science poses it again and again. The anatomical features of your basic female Sea Maiden, while obviously and gloriously equipped for nursing, offer no hint as to how any postulated union of Sea Master and Sea Maiden is affected. (Sir Edmund then offers the only explanation he can imagine) Perhaps it is a spontaneous regeneration, the mechanics therein asexual in nature, the details of which leaving this learned scientist in a sustained quandary.”
But the recent problems involving re-coaling the Baci Finale left the youngest Roberts (Edmund C.) becalmed. With some coal remaining in the ship’s bunker he steamed a bit further up the California coast and dropped anchor in a secluded bay. There he spent over a week mumbling to himself and growling at the stowaway triplets. Fear allowed him no more then bland, faraway looks in the direction of his naturalist companion, Dr. Marie Gebeaux. She accompanied him in the late afternoon decent of his diving apparatus, the atmosphere in the cramped vessel increasingly humid and heavy with quiet.

Then she appeared, a beautiful Sea Maiden, apparently adream and drifting slowly toward them. As she neared, she withered sensually a time or too and then did the strangest thing. She moved her hands to just above her waist and deliberately and carefully pushed them downward against her tummy. The topmost edge of her lavender tail slid down, wherein she hooked her thumbs behind it and actually a bit inside, and further moved it down. She withered again, smiled briefly and then proceeded to reveal that the fleshy portion of her upper body actually extended under her lavender sheath of her fish-like lower half, until low and behold, unanswered questions became obvious.

In exquisite detail she revealed herself to be more human in nature than any had dared to dream. Dr. Gebeaux whispered, “Unbelievable: homo sapien in all particulars.” Edmund C. attempted to avert his eyes. “Heaven above,” he marveled, “and apparently below, also,” he added after a pause. Whereupon, remembering his companion, he cleared his throat as if to reclaim his last words. And although he speaks of the discovery in his journal, the bottom third of the entry is torn free and removed. Weather it speaks of the remainder of the encounter or perhaps a sketch is unknown.

Oh mystery of life, solved at last, the upper portion of his journal reads. Beautiful Sea Maiden sighted. Attractive in her entirety. We now understand and appreciate so much more of life under the sea. Am eternally grateful the discovery was female.

This beautiful Sea Maiden illustration is from a collection of Sea Maidens (mermaids), Sea Babies (mermaid babies), Sea Masters (merman), pirates and fairies created by renowned artist and novelist Robert Kline of St. Augustine, Florida. The illustrations are from Robert’s novel The Forgotten Voyage of H.M.S. Baci in which the Sea Captain, Sir Edmund Roberts describes in his log, his various Sea Maiden, Sea Baby and Sea Master sightings. This illustration is available for purchase in the following matted sizes: 5″ x 7″, 8″ x 10″, 11″ x 14″ and an 11″ x 17″ that comes unmatted on a piece of 1/4″ foam board.

Purchase prints here

Sea Maiden 3 Becky with Sailfish

Sea Maiden art by Robert Kline

The following is an excerpt from Roberts book The forgotten voyage of the HMS Baci.

Edmund C. Roberts luxuriated in the blowing prop wash and the smell of burning castor oil. He was off the coast of South America and about 100 feet above the cold, gently rolling Pacific. The Bleriot XI aeroplane in which he flew was barely such, it being a fragile construct of sticks and wood and wire and rubberized cloth dragged forward by a wildly spinning engine (advanced engineering dictating that optimum performance was achieved by bolting the propeller to the engine and allowing the whole mess to twirl itself violently at the fore if the craft; thus providing the lightest and most oiled horsepower available in 1912. The aeroplane was loud, smelly and delicate, but it was his, and he was, indeed, flying. Which was the only time he was happy. On the ground he was haunted by memories of parental abandonment and his inability to tolerant female companionship for more than one phase of the moon. He detested children, large and small alike. If they were joyous he begrudged them their happy childhood and if not, they painfully reminded him of his own. Worse still, he wasn’t even uncomfortable in the company of men. He found no solace in drink for he couldn’t hold his alcohol and quickly became a whining, maudlin drunk. At sea he was usually sick, often green and unsteady, a constant friend of any available rail from whose safety he could cast into the vast ocean his last, churning meal. Even his sleep was fitful and plagued with bad dreams. Fortunately though, he was wealthy beyond words and therefore spared the crushing finale indignity of being miserable and poor. But aloft, as he maintained a respectful distance from those below, Edmund C. Roberts suckled the soft, fulfilling breast of the only peace he knew. He could fly when only a handful of others were able, and in that he reveled. A natural at the controls, Edmund C. coaxed airworthiness from his reluctant craft with a cautious, though unconscious ballet of hands and feet. His mind was free and happy, his spirits lifted at least as high as his body.
Such was his state as he scanned the ocean below. Looking down was easily accomplished in a Bleriot XI, for there was no floor and barely two feet of canvas at each side of his waist. He sat suspended in a tiny wicker basket of a chair, his downward view obstructed only by his own body and the tiny wheel at the top of the control stick. And what a view he had! The long swells were broken again and again by huge fish jumping from the depths and scores of sea maidens slowly surfacing and rolling about in a most sensual manner. Though a part of him wished to remain aloft, Edmund C. noted suitable landmarks on the shore and hurried back to the Baci Finale. His landing was short of disaster and within hours the wonderful ship steamed to the afore-observed bay. His diving apparatus was lowered and within moments the explorer had his fourth intimate observation of a sea maiden.
She wafted by in the company of a magnificent sailfish, he slowly circling her as she balanced in stasis, her wrists nearly crossed behind her. "Indeed," Edmund muttered, for he had studies enough to know she was demonstrating her subservience to the will of nature, symbolically placing herself at the center of a dance whose direction she would never lead."

His notebook reads:
Maidenous subservus istiophorus “Becky” Sighted off Gran Columbia, South America August 23, 1912

If you would like to purchase a Sea Maiden print please visit www.RobertKlineArt.com