# The Coast of Labrador

- By: William Bradford (American, 1823–1892)
- Date: 1866
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 72 × 113.3 cm (28 3/8 × 44 5/8 in.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Ada Turnbull Hertle Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/100489)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/a40963617abf0ce40e4923c7b0c0d6c9.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0