Return of the Labrador Fishermen

In the summer of 1861, William Bradford first set out for the northernmost latitudes of the Arctic, visiting Labrador and Greenland to paint some of the earliest images of this remote region. While there, the artist also conducted an extensive photographic survey, and recorded his encounters with the indigenous Esquimaux people. Nearly every year over the following decade, Bradford mounted additional expeditions to the Arctic, using his photographs and numerous sketches to form the basis of his many later compositions in oil.

During one of his trips to the Arctic in 1869, the artist wrote, "The icebergs were innumerable, of every possible form and shape, and ever changing. As the sun in his circuit fell upon different parts of the same berg, it developed continually new phases. On one side would be a towering mass in shadow, on the other a majestic berg glistened in sunlight; so that without leaving the vessel's deck I could study every variety of light and shade." (as quoted in William Bradford: Artist of the Arctic, New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1969, p. 20) The present work captures the extraordinary range of colors Bradford viewed on his adventures in the Arctic amidst the Labrador maritime community.