William Bradford (April 30, 1823 – April 25, 1892) was an American romanticist painter,

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

, originally from

Fairhaven, Massachusetts Fairhaven (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a New England town, town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzz ...

, near

New Bedford New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, New Bedford had a ...

. His early work focused on portraits of the many ships in New Bedford Harbor. In 1858, his painting ''New Bedford Harbor at Sunset'' was included in

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was no ...

's landmark New Bedford Art Exhibition.

Career

He is known for his paintings of ships and Arctic seascapes. From 1861 to 1866 he made excursions north to Labrador with Dr.

Isaac Israel Hayes Isaac Israel Hayes (March 5, 1832 – December 17, 1881) was an American Arctic explorer, physician, and politician, who was appointed as the commanding officer at Satterlee General Hospital during the American Civil War, and was then elected, ...

. He was one of the first American painters to portray the frozen regions of the north: for example, his contemporary

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for paintin ...

had painted '' The Icebergs'' in 1861;

was also active in the same period. Bradford was accompanied by photographer William H. Pierce on his 1864 expedition, which resulted in the first iceberg photographs taken in acrtic regions. In 1862, Boston, he was an art teacher to Charles Dormon Robinson. With funds provided by LeGrand Lockwood, Bradford traveled to Greenland in 1869, his farthest northern excursion, reaching eventually as far as 75° north latitude aboard the steamship ''Panther'', accompanied by photographers John L. Dunmore and George Critcherson. Upon his return, Bradford spent two years in London, where he published an account of his trips to the north, entitled ''The Arctic regions, illustrated with photographs taken on an art expedition to Greenland; with descriptive narrative by the artist.''(London, 1873) Elephant folio. In 1874, he was elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

as an Associate member. He was associated with the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

, not an institution but rather an informal group of like-minded painters. He adopted their techniques and became highly interested in the way light touches water and how it affects the appearance of water surfaces and the general atmospherics of a painting. He compositionally balanced many of his paintings by creating a counter-subject and by placing darker colors around the edges, framing and counteracting the center's better-lit subject. Scene in the Arctic

Gallery

File:William Bradford - Looking out of Battle Harbor - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Looking out of Battle Harbor'', 1877 File:Bradford, William - Whaler and Fishing Vessels near the Coast of Labrador - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Whaler And Fishing Vessels Near The Coast Of Labrador'', 1880 File:An Incident of Whaling.jpg, ''An Incident of Whaling''

References

External links

* http://www.whalingmuseum.org/online_exhibits/wm_bradford/index.html
Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

www.William-Bradford-Gallery.org
123 works by William Bradford
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute 2002 exhibition "Arctic Diary: Paintings and Photographs by William Bradford"

New Bedford Whaling Museum 2003 exhibition "William Bradford: Sailing Ships & Arctic Seas"

"Arctic Visions: Away then Floats the Ice-Island", exhibit microsite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradford, William 1823 births 1892 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 19th-century American explorers 19th-century American photographers American marine artists People from Fairhaven, Massachusetts 19th-century American male artists