New Bedford, MA
Buried deep within the logbooks, journals, and manuscripts of America’s whaling heritage are paintings, drawings, and representations of the whale hunt rarely, if ever, seen by the public. From the 1750s through the first years of the 20th century, American whaling voyages ranged farther off shore, and ultimately around the world, in a pursuit that produced oil and baleen for the growing population and industrialization of the US.
The dangerous pursuit of whales has been justly studied and chronicled, but many writers have overlooked a significant cultural aspect of multiyear voyages wherein day-to-day events were pictorially recorded.
This exhibition highlights artworks that capture the essence of whaling, its culture, vessels, the geographical locales where it took place, and the animals commonly pursued. Scrimshaw whaling scenes have seldom been compared with whalemen’s paintings and drawings, although the comparisons are obvious. The mediums have been treated separately, yet each came into creation at the same place and time and under the same conditions.
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.
Whether or not you go, the accompanying publication O’er the Wide and Tractless Sea: Original Art of the Yankee Whale Hunt highlights unique artworks that capture the essence of whaling and its culture.The author's meticulous research is based upon a study of marine history and art spanning two decades. This handsome book features 327 illustrations of whaling scenes, scrimshaw, prints, and paintings. It is unique in its structure, detailed in its study, and enlightening in its discoveries.
Select O’er the Wide and Tractless Sea: Original Art of the Yankee Whale Hunt to learn more, or to place this book in your Amazon shopping cart. Your Amazon purchase through this link generates a small commission that will help to fund the ArtGeek.art search engine.
New Bedford, MA