In 1859, New York landscape painter, William Bradford, set out on a most remarkable Arctic adventure. His 18-month, 10,000-mile journey aboard the two-masted schooner Noah’s Ark to uncover, and ultimately paint, intricate icebergs and whole pages of Arctic revelations resulted in some of the most remarkable works of art of his day. This article will look at Bradford’s story and the impact he had on art and exploration at the time, and throughout the modern era.
The Artist: William Bradford
William Bradford was a leading American landscape painter of the mid-19th century. Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1823, Bradford early on showed a penchant for exploring and sketching landscapes, particularly of the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. His first oil paintings, at the age of 25, were of craggy seascapes and of American whaling vessels, showing his interest in depicting ocean scenes. His career gained momentum in 1851, when his painting ‘Shipwreck off the Coast of Ceylon’ was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York.
Bradford’s brushes with death
William Bradford’s most distinguished work was the body of work he produced on his two Arctic expeditions in the 1850s and ’60s. His influential series of paintings, entitled ‘After Icebergs’, was a result of his thrilling, some might say dangerous, Arctic adventures.
In 1857, Bradford’s schooner hit a shoal off Newfoundland and he and the crew were forced to take to the lifeboats, disembarking with only a few supplies. Miraculously, they eventually reached Labrador and eventually set sail for their Arctic adventures.
On the second expedition he resumed, in 1859 and 1860, along the Bering Strait, Bradford and Noah’s Ark encountered a bevy of icebergs, the dangers of which he expressed in his painting entitled ‘Polar Iceberg’. After several months at sea, Bradford and the crew eventually arrived in Dutch Harbor for supplies and repairs, where they decided to brave the winter there. This proved to be a dangerous setback as the schooner crashed against a shore of ice. Bradford was able to escape and make it back to board the schooner where they all eventually made their way to San Francisco.
The Legacy of William Bradford
Bradford remains a celebrated artist whose skill and vision together helped to document and inform the scientific discoveries of his era. His work stands as a testimony to the formative years of exploration and discovery in the Arctic region. This two-year venture also helped to map the Arctic region, provide information to visitors, and most importantly, decorate the walls of its art galleries.
His paintings of the Arctic regions remain among the most remarkable works of his generation and are widely considered the best works of his era among the Arctic-scaped works of the Hudson River School. His artwork still greets passengers on the Staten Island Ferry and some of his original works hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other galleries around the world.
William Bradford’s 1859 Arctic adventure was a pioneering journey of exploration and discovery, during which his skillful painting and drawing provided us with remarkable works of art which remain as a vital cultural legacy to this day. His luck and courage resulted in the preservation of intricate and majestic icebergs, along with the dangers of the sea that exposed in his sketches. These paintings and prints serve as lasting evidence of both his grand Arctic voyage and the growth of Arctic exploration in the 19th century.
