An Incident of Whaling
1880s
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
22 x 36 in. (55.9 x 91.4 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of DeLancey Thorn Grant, in memory of her mother, Louise Floyd-Jones Thorn, 1990
Accession Number
1990.197.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, American artist William Bradford captured the raw drama of Arctic whaling in *An Incident of Whaling (1880s), an oil-on-canvas masterpiece measuring 22 36 inches. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of's American Wing, this work depicts ships and boats navigating treacherous icy waters amid swirling snow—a perilous snapshot of maritime adventure. Bradford, renowned for his luminous marine paintings, masterfully rendered the glistening ice floes and frothy waves, evoking the isolation and danger of polar expeditions. Bradford's style drew from the Luminist tradition, empha...