The Navigator's Eye Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1881, Christopher Rave lived a life defined by the salt and spray of the sea. He was a man of many disciplines—a painter, an explorer, and a professor—whose work was deeply rooted in the maritime history of his homeland. Between 1900 and 1909, he dedicated much of his creative energy to a singular, massive undertaking: a series of approximately 300 paintings documenting 8,000 years of na…