The Coast of Labrador

William Bradford devoted the bulk of his career to painting Arctic scenes like The Coast of Labrador. Rendered in minute detail and suffused with light, the artist’s Arctic compositions share stylistic motifs with John Frederick Kensett’s Luminist views of the Rhode Island coast. Bradford first traveled to Labrador between 1854 and 1857; it was not until 1861, however, that the region became his main source of inspiration. He returned to Labrador repeatedly over the next eight years. Signed and dated 1866, this painting probably derives from a number of sketches he accumulated during an 1865 journey, and it attests to Bradford’s interest in the diverse light effects and rocky landscape of the Arctic.