Tag: William Bradfod

Off to the Arctic with American painter William Bradford (1832-1892). My fingers are feeling frozen just thinking about it.

An Arctic Summer: Boring Through the Pack in Melville Bay. 1871. American. Oil on canvas. William Bradford, painter (1832-1892). Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the public domain. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10207
Arctic Sunset of Labrador. 1872. American. Oil on board. William Bradford, painter (1832-1892). Signed William Bradford on the lower left and signed and dated William Bradford ’72 on the lower right. Image © 2025 Grogan & Company, Inc. Fair use license. https://www.groganco.com/auction-lot/william-bradford-american-1823-1892-arctic-s_ACA4D2C996
View of Sermitsialik Glacier. 1873. American. Oil on canvas. William Bradford, painter (1832-1892). Private collection. The Athenaeum. Artwork itself in the public domain due to age. https://eclecticlight.co/2017/10/08/coast-ice-the-arctic-art-of-william-bradford/
Fishing Fleet off Labrador. 1884. American. Oil on canvas. William Bradford, painter (1832-1892). New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut. Artwork itself in the public domain due to age. via Wikimedia Commons.https://eclecticlight.co/2017/10/08/coast-ice-the-arctic-art-of-william-bradford/

William Bradford was born in the port of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, which shares its harbor with the city of New Bedford which was home to many of the American whaling fleets who went after whales in the Arctic so must have had many stories to tell. Bradford also went along on expeditions to the Arctic at least twice along with outings to Labrador and Newfoundland so these are if not from life the closest thing to it.

In the nineteenth century, the Arctic and Antarctic were regarded as the last frontier like outer space is today.