William Bradford - the life and works of painter William Bradford - Brief Article

Magazine Antiques, March, 2000

(1823-1892)

Fishing off the Coast

Born into a Quaker family in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, William Bradford was encouraged to go into the family business, a ship outfitters' and dry goods store in New Bedford. Although he obliged his father, he spent more time sketching than working and by the time he turned thirty, his father was resigned to the fact that William would become a professional artist.

Bradford started out in New Bedford painting portraits of whaling ships and sea merchants. Around 1855 he invited Dutch marine painter Albert Van Beest to paint with him. Van Beest's dashing energetic style influenced Bradford but after three years the two men parted company. Bradford resumed his passion for meticulously observing and recording the natural world of sky and water. He traveled up and down the New England coast making pencil sketches and oil sketches.

In 1861 Bradford began making trips to Labrador where he became fascinated with the Arctic sun on ice and water. Around this time he formed a friendship with Seth M. Vose (1831-1910), who sold many of his paintings in Providence and Boston. Bradford returned again and again to the Arctic Circle, painting ships in ice and water. At the end of his life he returned to Fairhaven and died unexpectedly on a lecture trip to New York in 1892.

Fishing off the Coast was most likely the result of one of Bradford's visits to Labrador. The painting has resided in a New England family since 1923.

William Bradford frequently corresponded with his Providence, Rhode Island dealer, Seth M. Vose. Because the artist enjoyed enormous monetary success, he frequently boasted about his clients:

I have sold three paintings of different subjects and scenes for five thousand dollars each and two others to Gov. Selund Stanford of California for his gallery to be connected with the University which he is now building which he calculates shall be equal to any in any part of the world. It will cost about fifteen millions of dollars.