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Lot Essay
Bradford first set out for the northernmost latitudes of the arctic in the summer of 1861, visiting Labrador and Greenland to paint some of the earliest images of this remote region. While there, he 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. As noted by John Wilmerding, "an immensely successful career followed in the wake of his pursuit of the exotic, so similar to Church's. Bradford got extensive backing for later trips, and was subsequently rewarded with publication of his accounts in England and the sale in 1875 of a painting to Queen Victoria." (J. Wilmerding, American Marine Painting, New York, 1987, p. 138)
Taking note of the artist's fidelity to the appearance of ships and topography, the nineteenth-century art-historian Henry Tuckerman quoted at length a contemporary account of one Bradford's arctic excursions: "The vessel encountered its first ice about the middle of the month, in the vicinity of Cape Clear, and from that period to the latter part of August, when it was headed homeward, it was never out of sight of icebergs and icefloes. For two weeks at one time, the vessel was frozen in a field of ice five or six hundred miles in extent, and so surrounded by it that it rose like a wall several feet above the taffrail. It may be readily imagined that sketching out of doors in such a region, even in the middle of summer, with the thermometer in the neighborhood of thirty degrees Fahrenheit, was not a comfortable occupation, however exciting it might have been. Clad in the sealskin suits of the Esquimaux, Mr. Bradford managed to protect himself from the cold sufficiently to enable him to make many studies, some of them very remarkable in color, and all novel and interesting in subject. The larger part of his studies are of icebergs, various in their forms, some resembling grand old castles and ruins, and others of odd fantastic shapes. When the sun falls full upon them their color is a pure dazzling white; but the portions which are in shade are blue, or green, or purple, fading into delicate tints of gray, and shot with rays of pink and saffron." (H.T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists, New York, 1967, pp.554-5)
Among the Ice Flows is one of Bradford's largest masterworks. In it, the artist depicts two icebound ships enveloped in an atmospheric light and a fog gently rising in nearly windless air. Numerous figures busy themselves with the work of the expedition, while in the distance two icebergs tower over the awe-inspiring and rugged landscape. Among the Ice Flows is a majestic example of the artist's most striking legacy, his interpretations of the arctic wilderness.
Taking note of the artist's fidelity to the appearance of ships and topography, the nineteenth-century art-historian Henry Tuckerman quoted at length a contemporary account of one Bradford's arctic excursions: "The vessel encountered its first ice about the middle of the month, in the vicinity of Cape Clear, and from that period to the latter part of August, when it was headed homeward, it was never out of sight of icebergs and icefloes. For two weeks at one time, the vessel was frozen in a field of ice five or six hundred miles in extent, and so surrounded by it that it rose like a wall several feet above the taffrail. It may be readily imagined that sketching out of doors in such a region, even in the middle of summer, with the thermometer in the neighborhood of thirty degrees Fahrenheit, was not a comfortable occupation, however exciting it might have been. Clad in the sealskin suits of the Esquimaux, Mr. Bradford managed to protect himself from the cold sufficiently to enable him to make many studies, some of them very remarkable in color, and all novel and interesting in subject. The larger part of his studies are of icebergs, various in their forms, some resembling grand old castles and ruins, and others of odd fantastic shapes. When the sun falls full upon them their color is a pure dazzling white; but the portions which are in shade are blue, or green, or purple, fading into delicate tints of gray, and shot with rays of pink and saffron." (H.T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists, New York, 1967, pp.554-5)
Among the Ice Flows is one of Bradford's largest masterworks. In it, the artist depicts two icebound ships enveloped in an atmospheric light and a fog gently rising in nearly windless air. Numerous figures busy themselves with the work of the expedition, while in the distance two icebergs tower over the awe-inspiring and rugged landscape. Among the Ice Flows is a majestic example of the artist's most striking legacy, his interpretations of the arctic wilderness.