.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
During William Bradford's most ambitious trip to the Arctic in 1869, the artist wrote: "The icebergs were innumerable, of every possible form and shape, and ever changing. As the sun in his circuit fell upon different parts of the same berg, it developed continually new phases. On one side would be a towering mass in shadow, on the other a majestic berg glistened in sunlight; so that without leaving the vessel's deck I could study every variety of light and shade." (as quoted in William Bradford: Artist of the Arctic, New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1969, p. 20)
Born in Salem on the North shore of Massachusetts and raised in the whaling town of New Bedford, near Cape Cod, Bradford was surrounded by water and wharves throughout his youth and became well acquainted with the details of the ships and their sailors as well as the movement and the effect of light against the water. Bradford first set out for the northernmost latitudes of the Arctic in the summer of 1861, visiting Labrador and Greenland to paint some of the earliest images of this remote region. While there, he also conducted an extensive photographic survey, and recorded his encounters with the indigenous Esquimaux people. Nearly every year over the following decade, Bradford mounted additional expeditions to the Arctic, using his photographs and numerous sketches to form the basis of his many later compositions in oil. As noted by John Wilmerding, "an immensely successful career followed in the wake of his pursuit of the exotic, so similar to Church's. Bradford got extensive backing for later trips, and was subsequently rewarded with publication of his accounts in England and the sale in 1875 of a painting to Queen Victoria." (American Marine Painting, New York, 1987, p. 138)
Born in Salem on the North shore of Massachusetts and raised in the whaling town of New Bedford, near Cape Cod, Bradford was surrounded by water and wharves throughout his youth and became well acquainted with the details of the ships and their sailors as well as the movement and the effect of light against the water. Bradford first set out for the northernmost latitudes of the Arctic in the summer of 1861, visiting Labrador and Greenland to paint some of the earliest images of this remote region. While there, he also conducted an extensive photographic survey, and recorded his encounters with the indigenous Esquimaux people. Nearly every year over the following decade, Bradford mounted additional expeditions to the Arctic, using his photographs and numerous sketches to form the basis of his many later compositions in oil. As noted by John Wilmerding, "an immensely successful career followed in the wake of his pursuit of the exotic, so similar to Church's. Bradford got extensive backing for later trips, and was subsequently rewarded with publication of his accounts in England and the sale in 1875 of a painting to Queen Victoria." (American Marine Painting, New York, 1987, p. 138)