Afterglow

Oil on Canvas
15 x 30 in.
c. 1870s or 1880s
1931.391.30
On display in: Arcade

Afterglow is stylistically very similar to The Berg and thus may be date from the same period, the 1870s or 1880s. Judging by the line of floats in the foreground and the boats, it also represents an Arctic fishery. On his visits to the far north, Bradford was impressed by the quickly changing colors. Here the light of an Arctic twilight tinges the whole scene a peachy hue. This light, combined with the ice formation and barren, rocky shore, conveys a sense of the sublimity of the region. Yet the activities are so familiar, and the scene is so still, that the terror experienced by Bradford on his Greenland journey of 1869 is altogether lacking.

Text by Patricia B. Sanders reprinted from The Haggin Collection (available for purchase at the Museum Store)
© 1991 by the San Joaquin Pioneer and Historical Society