MARINE ART
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UCiam 'Bnulforcf by Richard C. Kugler
As the featured event of its centennial year, the New Bedford Whaling Museum/Old Dartmouth Historical Society (NBWM) in Massachusetts is presenting a major retrospective exhibition, William Bradford: Sailing Ships and Arctic Seas. The exhibition runs 23 May through 26 October 2003. s an artist, W illiam Bradford was a late starter, painting at age 29 a commissioned portrait of the whaleship Jireh Perry, lying at anchor in New Bedford harbor. He was born in 1823
on the opposi te side of the harbor in Fairhaven, where his father and an uncle were whaling merchants on a modest scale. Another uncle was the town 's most prominent builder of whaleships, while a cousin operated a shipyard in nearby Mattapoisett. Amid these surroundings, on the shores of America's largest whaling port, Bradford gained a yo uthful acq uaintance with the vessels that became his initial subj ects. Although he "early felt a desire to paint," he was put to work in the clothing trade, first as a clerk in a New Bedford dry-goods store, then as the proprietor of a store of his
Bradford s 1854portrait ofthe whaleship Twilight reveals the influence ofhis mentor Albert Van Beest in bringing a vessel to life in a choppy sea, here with a Nomans Land boat adding interest to the scene. That loosely painted boat, however, coming from Van Beests brush or coaching, presents an awkward contrast to Bradfo rd sprecisely detailed whaler. The difference in techniques was neverfu lly resolved during the three years oftheir collaboration. (Whaleship Twilight of New Bedford, 1854, 20" x 30'/s': oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left: "Wm Bradford/1854. ")
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own. In 1852, when his business failed, he admitted, "I spent too much time painting to succeed." 1 From a makeshift studio near the New Bedford wharves, he painted the]ireh Perry and a succession of other whaleship portraits, then journeyed to Boston to paint the clipper ships of that port. Not unexpectedly, by 1854, "the broadside of a vessel became absolutely loathsome to me. " Realizing his need for instruction, he went to New York, where he met Albert Van Beest (1820-1860), recently arrived from Rotterdam and trained in the Dutch tradition of marine painting. In return for room and board, Van Beest came to New Bedford to share Bradford's studio on the Fairhaven waterfront. Under his tutelage, Bradford's techniques improved and his outlook expanded to include more complex compositions involving other vessels, small craft, background landscapes and human activity. Occasionally, Bradford and Van Beest collaborated on pai ntings, notably the New York Regatta off New Bedford (1856) arid Boston Harbor (1857). In the latter year, Van Beest returned to New York, where he died in 1860, leaving to Bradford an enlarged vision of the possibilities of marine painting and an improved ability to paint water and skies. A less direct influence came to Bradford from Fitz Hugh Lane, whom he probably knew from his days in Bosto n. His familiarity with Lane's great sunset views of Boston Harbor from the early 1850s can be seen in the small painting, Ships in Boston Harbor at Twilight (1859), which shares a similar preoccupation with the measured placement of vessels and the effects oflight at the end of the day. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, Bradford painted a series of
SEA HISTORY 104, SPRING/SUMMER 2003