William Bradford (1823-1892)

William Bradford was born in Salem on the North Shore of Massachusetts and raised in the whaling town of New Bedford, near Cape Cod. He made his first voyage in July 1856, sailing to the island of Grand Manan and the Bay of Fundy between Maine and Nova Scotia. The artist returned there on a later trip in 1860, and his scenes inspired by the Bay of Fundy typically feature vigorously active fishermen in small boats on choppy seas. Describing the present work dated 1861, Bradford scholar Richard Kugler writes, "All of the boats are small, two-masted, open boats of a type commonly used by New England fishermen who fished the inshore waters. For some reason, perhaps a break-down in rigging, the boat in the foreground has shipped its masts, the tips of which protrude over the stern. The sails are piled amidships, and the crew of the disabled craft appears to be taking in a tow line from the nearby boat sailing past." (unpublished letter, August 20, 1990)

Fishermen on the Bay of Fundy was originally owned by Edwin Forrest, a mid-19th century Shakespearean actor who was also Bradford's friend and patron.