Ice Floes under the Midnight Sun

William Bradford was a rather conventional landscape painter, in the Hudson River style, when he joined explorer Issac Israel Hayes on an Arctic journey. He came back renewed, such unusual landscapes demanded the wild use of few bold colors and a wide lens effect. The result feels both cinematic and psychedelic to us today.

Coastal Rocks, Nahant

Off the Greenland Coast under the Midnight Sun, 1873

An unusual property of water: “Fortunately for all of us, ice is that rare solid that is less dense than its liquid state. If liquid water was denser, the cold bottom of lakes would collect ice which would be insulated and remain frozen. Oceans and seas would freeze from the bottom up and stay that way. Instead, solid ice floats on liquid water, making our world possible”. (Les contrees polaires, Encyclopedie de la jeunesse)

Scene of the Artic, 1880

Attributions: Ice Floes by William Bradford – /www.flickr.com/photos/senex_magister26/7856878448, Public Domain

Coastal Rocks: By William Bradford /www.mfah.org/art/detail/77122, Public Domain,

Off the Coast of Greenland: By William Bradford – New Britain Museum of American Art

Scene of the Artic: By William Bradford – Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, PD